PTAA’s 10th emerging outbound destinations; global collaboration key to recovery – Manila Bulletin

The Philippine Travel Agencies Associations (PTAA), the largest and most prestigious association of travel agencies in the country, has celebrated its 5th year^th General Assembly and started the 10^th Emerging Outbound Destinations on September 22, 2022 at Hotel Lucky China Town in Binondo, Manila.

For the PTAA 10^th Emerging Outbound Destinations, several speakers presented new and untapped international destinations to promote outbound travel and provide local travelers with attractive and interesting international destination choices.

During the event, the ambassadors from Israel and Egypt, as well as representatives from the embassies of Turkey and the US, were invited as guest speakers to keep updated on the status of their tourism industry and to promote their various tourist attractions in their respective countries. In addition, they took the opportunity to discuss the travel opportunities in their countries and invited the public to visit and enjoy their unique and attractive travel destinations.

As President of PTAA, Ms. Michelle Taylan’s report showcased positive developments in the tourism industry, emphasizing that the key to recovery is collaboration. She said: “PTAA has initiated a collaboration with various international travel organizations. She met with members of the Federation of Asean Travel Association (FATA) and the Asean Tourism Association (ASEANTA) to exchange views on cooperation and achieve a common goal for the tourism industry. It has also participated in the travel fair organized by the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA). More importantly, it signed a memorandum of understanding between MATTA and PTAA on how to promote tourism in both countries, especially international travel. In addition, the PTAA also looks forward to working with other foreign governments and embassies to find common ground for cooperation in promoting tourism in the country. These collaborations between different travel organizations are sure to reinvigorate outbound travel and eventually lead to a robust international travel industry.”

For international tourism, Ms Taylan said: “There are strong signs of recovery as large numbers of people are now traveling after a two-year pandemic”. She cited the study by the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) that nearly 250 million international travelers were registered in the first five months of this year, compared with 77 million travelers in the same period last year, an increase of more than 300%. “Although still far from pre-pandemic numbers, the number of tourist arrivals is very encouraging and clearly shows that the tourism industry is on the road to recovery and hopefully will reach pre-pandemic tourist arrival levels in the near future. ‘ She added.

On the local travel scene, industry sources estimate that the expected tourist arrivals for 2022 will be around 1 million tourists. Since August 2022, that figure has been exceeded setting a new forecast of 1.4 million travelers and industry stakeholders are hoping to reach that level by the end of the year.