[2019] Why You Shouldn’t Go to PTTA Travel and Tour Expo and Reasons Why You Should

The Travel Tour Expo 2019 by PTAA in the Philippines is happening soon! Are you going?

We were there yesterday at PTAA for the 23^rd Philippines Travel Tour Expo. Left home as the sky was breaking dawn and the wind, crisp and chilly still, kept as company as the jeepney we were on navigated the slopes and curves of our highland town to get to the closest city.

Four hours later with only the A/C of the bus between us and the searing heat outside, we finally arrived to dusty, traffic congested Manila. That’s how far home is from the metropolis. But we braved the commute, after all we were delirious for hotel and travel deals that we know with certainty we can score from the PTAA travel expo. 🙂

I thought since it was a Friday morning, most people will still be at work. But oh myyy, we arrived to a snaking line of eager travel deal hunters. And it was no ordinary line, the queue on the two conference gates turn corners and snakes all the way to the back of the SMX Convention Center. We got inside the expo floor after an hour of queuing, yes truly, but all is well hehe.

We got what we went there for. PTAA is a deal hunters’ haven with its numerous exhibitors – local and foreign companies – doing their best to entice expo-goers with their promos and discounts.

Airlines, hotels, travel agencies, tour operations, provincial and regional tourism offices, travel bags and luggage stores – they all compete for your attention, bombarding you with their low rates, and awesome deals until you part with your cash, or sign credit card slips.

For a travel bug like us walking in the middle of organized chaos, the pamphlets, travel books, and flyers screaming deals, the company personnel and agents in their corporate attire talking with hordes of people – the expo floor energy excites us!

Why You Shouldn’t Visit the PTAA?

The airlines booths are ALWAYS blockbuster with the expo-goers. TENS of HUNDREDs in line waiting to be served. Last year’s expo, a friend was able to buy PAL round trip Manila to Batanes tickets after queuing for 4 hours! She paid a little over P6,000 for round trip. Good deal, yes, if you have the needed patience.

90% of the people you see on these two pics are lining up to buy promo tickets

If the only reason you are going there is to buy a promo ticket for local destinations from Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, PAL, SkyJet – I suggest you check the airlines website first. The promos are available online too unless the airlines specifically announced that their low fare promo are available only for those who will book on the expo floor.

Check here for the latest promo fares of Cebu Pacific, Air Asia, PAL, SkyJet, etc. You’ll see there the promo tickets that are also available for online booking, which coincides with this year’s PTAA expo dates.

In fact, you can book promo tickets as low as P499 via online booking at Cebu Pacific official website at www.cebupacificair.com. This promo runs from Feb 5 to 7, the same dates at the PTTA travel and tour expo.

Now, the most coveted promo flight is for Batanes. SkyJet offers P2,998 one way in the expo for this route. On SkyJet’s website there are P3,212.50 available Manila to Basco flights. You pay a little more but you will save yourself long hours waiting on queue. And who knows when it’s your turn after waiting for ages in the line, the promo fares are already gone?

SkyJet BATANES PROMO you can buy online!

PAL also has a promo for their Basco Batanes flight, check this online trial booking that I did for one-way Manila to Basco Batanes for July 2016. I’ve taken this a few minutes ago while I was writing this post.

So, please check the airline’s website first for the promo that’s available online. Who knows what you want is waiting for you to be booked at your convenience, at the comfort of your home, via online.

But if you want to book local tickets and you want to experience PTTA travel and tour expo, then go ahead. It’s a nice experience after all. 🙂

Why You Should Visit the PTAA?

There are actually more reasons why you should go to the PTTA Travel and Tour expo, versus why you shouldn’t.

First reason, as I’ve shared, we got what we want from the travel and tour expo in SMX. What was it? Discounted hotel bookings. 🙂

We can’t travel far nor as often as we used too for health reasons. Since ‘travel and exploring’ is deeply ingrained in us, we take the next closest thing – hotel staycations.

What we got?

Networld Hotel Spa and Casino in Roxas Blvd gift certificate for a De Luxe Room stay with complimentary breakfast (open date for stay on or before August 31,2016), for only P2,100. Published rate is P5,000+.

Manila Hotel discounted rate at P4,500, their published rates is P9000+. A discount of more than 50%! Awesome!

Marco Polo Plaza Cebu the gift cert with open date was offered at P4,000 promo instead of P9,000+.  This GC is for room plus buffet breakfast at Cafe Marco. Yeyyy! 😀

At last year PTTA we bought a Hotel Sofitel Philippine Plaza superior room for overnight stay with buffet breakfast for Php 6000 instead of Php 10,000+. But when we inquired from their booth at the expo, the gift cert promo is now for P7,000 (one thousand higher than what we got last expo). So we didn’t buy one from Sofitel this time around. :/

If you want to grab really good hotel room deals – the PTTA is the place to go to!

Second reason, international flights promo on international airlines are available!  US flights, Europe flights, Middle East flights, etc. Look out for the booth of international participants, especially booth of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, etc!

Third reason, organized tours and vacation packages on promo rates abound including cruises! Hong Kong with Disneyland, Coron hotel and package tours, Batanes room and tour, Japan tour, Pilgrimage tour, Star Cruises promos, Sun Cruises, Bali, Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Turkey, Malaysia, Greece, more and more!

There are also travel related establishment that set-up booths like Rustan’s Marketing for Samsonite luggage, PacSafe bags, Targus bags, Crumpler bags, etc. They have product sales there! *I would have wanted a PacSafe anti-theft bag but the line was looong and we couldn’t stay for hours since our time is limited in Manila and we have to travel back home.

Looking forward to visit and explore the offerings of the 2019 PTTA Travel and Tour Expo. 🙂

See you around!