IT’S the turn of the Chinese and its huge population to be on the spotlight in the Philippine International Travel Fair (PITF), which is set to start later this week at the Cebu International Convention.

After the Russians, which sent the biggest delegation in the same event last year, it will be the Chinese travel agencies that will meet with their local counterparts for unique business-matching opportunities for the tourism agency.

National Association of Independent Travel Agencies (Naitas) president emeritus Robert Lim Joseph said the results from last year’s event were huge even if based only by the increasing number of Russian tourists coming into the Philippines.

“You cannot measure it as of now, because we are looking at the long term,” Joseph said.

Aside from the Chinese, who are expected to send the biggest delegation, more travel agencies from North America and Europe will be coming to check what Philippine tour operators could offer to tourists.

The PITF is a unique program to boost tourism as it sets one-on-one meetings with the foreign buyers and the travel operators in the Philippines to provide an avenue for partnership. 

Local government units and companies will also be joining the fair’s exhibits to showcase their destinations and services.

Jenny Franco, the president of the Naitas chapter in Cebu, said there are at least 100 foreign buyers who are coming over, but the organizers are expecting more.

“There are always buyers who just walk in and visit the exhibits, so it is up to the sellers to seal the deal,” Franco said. “We are not the usual exhibits because there will be one-on-one meetings.”

The PITF will go after the Cebu Tourism Congress organized by the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, which is celebrating the Cebu Business Month.

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International travel fair in Cebu to focus on Chinese tourists

IT’S the turn of the Chinese and its huge population to be on the spotlight in the Philippine International Travel Fair (PITF), which is set to start later this week at the Cebu International Convention.

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