Bright tourism prospects spawn international travel festival
Monday, August 19, 2013
Rising from a world economic
recession in 2008, the global tourism industry is now gaining momentum for
sustained growth, and so is the Philippines, powered by vacationing overseas
Filipinos worldwide (OFWs) and an increasing number of visitors from East Asian
countries.
Such
is the phenomenon behind the emergence of the forthcoming International Travel
Festival (ITF) 2013, now covering, not only what used to be a solely inbound
promotional event dubbed “Travel Philippines Show”, but also outbound travel
named “Euro-AmeriAsian Travel, Trade & Cultural Expo.”
The
inclusion of both inbound and outbound travel makes the ITF a boon to a genuine
two-way tourism traffic, enabling it to contribute to the growth of the global
tourism industry now reportedly worth an estimated $1.15 trillion from a yearly
revenue rise of 1.5 percent over the past five years.
ITF
organizer Exlink Events says the Philippines can also benefit from the foreign
trips of its citizens through new product ideas, business concepts, knowledge
and discoveries, innovations and technologies, and modern insights that they
will bring with them on their return home.
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“At
the same time, the foreign-based international airlines that fly Filipinos to
overseas destinations will also have to bring in tourists from abroad in their
return flights,” said Exlink chief executive officer Mitch Ballesteros.
“Thus, the net
effect of brisk inbound and outbound travel is a thriving tourism industry that
gets a boost from both ends,” Ballesteros explained, citing tourism’s total
contribution of $6.3 trillion and 255 million jobs to the global economy in
2011 alone.\
“This
positive development makes the International Travel Festival very timely,
effectively promoting the Philippines as a major player in global tourism, not
just as a tourist destination, but also as a preferred source of worldclass
tourists,” Ballesteros pointed out.
To participate
in the International Travel Festival are exhibitors from both inbound and
outbound sectors involving airlines, hotels and resorts, travel agencies, tour
operators, MICE (meetings, incentive travel, conventions and events)
organizers, shopping malls and retail chains, transfers and transport firms,
cruise ships and domestic passenger vessels, telecommunication companies,
destination owners and managers, banks and financial institutions, and the
academe and various service providers, among many others.
To
be showcased at the expo are both local and foreign destinations and travel
establishments, making it a truly international event that can help the
Department of Tourism attain its target 10 million foreign and 56 million
domestic tourists by 2016.
The
International Travel Festival is slated at the SMX Convention Center on
December 11 to 12.
More information
about the event can be obtained from EX-LINK Management and Marketing Services
Corporation (tel: 632 6433887; fax: 632 6401280; email: info@exlinkevents.com;
or visit www.exlinkevents.com).
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