SIXTEEN tourism stakeholders in Cebu composed of resorts and tour operators will join the country’s first hybrid four-day Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex) this month.
Set in Panglao, Bohol on Sept. 22-24, Phitex will be participated in by more than 100 Philippine sellers and 100 foreign buyers in one platform for business-to-business sessions and networking.
This year’s Phitex is anchored on the theme: “Phitex Pivots: Business Unusual.”
“Amid the immense challenges for the tourism industry, Tourism Promotions Board (TBP) is leveraging on digital technology as a platform to sustain and explore new opportunities and markets,” said TBP chief operating officer Maria Anthonette Velasco-Allones. “With this e-conference setup, we endeavor to update our tourism market stakeholders from all over the world with the latest Philippine tourism offerings.”
Allones described the event as a pre-selling activity in tourism whose gains are expected to be felt next year.
TBP, which is the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) marketing arm, picked Bohol to host the hybrid travel fair to showcase the island province’s best practices in battling Covid-19. Bohol was also one of the identified destinations in the DOT’s proposed travel bubbles program.
Phitext 2020 will be participated in by 350 delegates with a hundred of them going to Bohol.
Allones, during an online press conference, bared that the event received an overwhelming participation from new markets.
“Of the 124 buyers, 64 percent are opportunity markets,” she said, citing Spain, United Kingdom, Russia and Indonesia as among the countries with a high number of participants.
Bohol Gov. Arthur Yap lauded the DOT-TBP’s initiative in pushing through with the Phitex amid the pandemic. He said the activity will be an opportunity for Bohol to showcase not only its tourism recovery efforts but also the best practices of the province in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
Yap said the activity will become an important gauge for the island province in its plan of reopening tourism to local and foreign guests.
A highlight of this year’s Phitex is the Travel Exchange, a series of exclusive business-to-business appointments between Philippine sellers and foreign buyers, happening for the first time in virtual booths. (KOC )