9th Travel Mart goes to Iloilo

THE Travel Mart Philippines( TTM) in cooperation with its overseas tourism partners and the Department of Tourism (DOT) Region 6 held The Travel Mart B2B session on March 29 at Seda Hotel Atria. DOT-6 also hosted dinner for buyers and sellers at Hotel Del Rio, Molo district.

The Travel Mart is a venue for local and international tourism stakeholders, including tour and travel operators, hotels a nd airlines, among others, to exchange products and services. Overseas tour operators, sellers, buyers from Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Nepal, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Maldives, Malaysia, Myanmar, Spain, Singapore, Turkey, and Vietnam joined the B2B event.

Regional Director Atty. Helen J. Catalbas said this is the first time Iloilo is hosting TTM, which only goes to show that the tourism sector of Western Visayas is determined to provide opportunities for local tourism stakeholders to promote their products and services to the international tourism markets. She said Western Visayas has been actively engaging in various travel fairs and business missions both domestic and international since 2014.

“Western Visayas had its first international tourism business mission in 2014 in Malaysia and Singapore, which caused a spectacular increase in the number of Malaysians and Singaporeans visiting the region. Through B2B sessions, our stakeholders were able to establish partnerships with travel operators from other countries that resulted to various foreign travel agents familiarization tours in Region 6,” Catalbas said.

Catalbas added that only DOT- accredited tour and travel operators in Western Visayas were invited to join the event. “This is to ensure that our foreign tour operator counterparts only deal with the best in the region,” she emphasized.

Presentors of tourism product portfolio were Tourism Officers J unel Ann Divinagracia ( Iloilo City), Gilbert Marin (Iloilo), Alphonsus Tesoro ( Capiz), Liberty Ferrer ( Guimaras), Roselle Ruiz ( Aklan), Stella Jardeleza (Antique) and Cheryl Jareno (Negros Occidental).

DOT- 6 will also host another familiarization tour with B2B session in April this time with Taiwan media and travel agents as part of the group’s familiarization tour in Iloilo, Guimaras and Negros Occidental from April 23-27, 2017./