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In its bid to boost further the country’s tourism industry amid the global recession, the Department of Tourism is setting up business meetings between local tourism industry players and foreign buyers.  Tourism secretary Ace Durano said, “In effect, the foreign buyers conduct the onsite consumer marketing for us in their respective countries.”

He added, the business meetings will be conducted next month, and will be part of the Philippine Travel Exchange (Phitex) 2009, on September 2 to 4 at the SMX Convention Center, which is spearheaded by DOT through the Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp.

The DOT expects Phitex 2009 to attract at least 183 travel wholesalers and tour operators from 27 countries and territories. These include Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Middle East, New Zealand, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and United States.

But the event is not all for the foreign tourism players, because local delegates to the exhibition and conference will be treated to education seminars on foreign markets. Foreign participants, on the other hand, will be given pre-event tours. The business meetings between the local players and foreign buyers would take place on the second day of the event.

Durano said, “The business meetings are regarded as the most important part of Phitex. A total of 28 pre-scheduled appointments will be given each delegate for the table-top discussions. But considering the significant number of delegates, additional business appointments may be set ‘unofficially’ during the breaks and various social functions throughout the event.”

Through the business meetings, Durano said “the Philippine tourism brand gets promoted directly over the counter or at the point of sale” to consumers globally, as the foreign buyers themselves were expected to do the promotions for the Philippines in their countries.