Windfall seen from ATF ’06

Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines stand to make a windfall from the ASEAN Tourism Forum (ATF) 2006 as 458 exhibitors from 10 countries and 470 buyers and media people from six continents are participating in this huge international event, which will be held in Davao City from Jan. 13 to 21 next year.

Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano said all the 928 attendees have confirmed their participation even as registration for ATF 2006 continues.

Durano said the number includes 372 trade buyers and 98 foreign media people from Australia, Europe, Southeast Asia and elsewhere in Asia, North and South America, Africa, and the Middle East.

Thailand tops the list of exhibitors, accounting for 133 of the 458 initial registrants, followed by Malaysia with 100, Indonesia with 67, Singapore with 64, the Philippines with 38, Vietnam with 25, Myanmar with 15, Cambodia with nine, and Brunei with seven. Laos is still preparing its list of participants.

Among the 372 trade buyers, 137 are coming from member-countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 127 from Europe, 52 from Australia/Asia, 39 from the Americas, 13 from the Middle East, and four from Africa.

Tourism Undersecretary Oscar Palabyab said Davao City could easily rake in over a million dollars from the foreign participants in the ATF 2006, computed at $90 per day for 10 days multiplied by the projected 1,800 international attendees.

"That amount does not include earnings from the expected influx of 1,200 domestic tourists and officials, and the long-term travel deals that the ATF would generate for all of Mindanao and the rest of the Philippines," Palabyab added.

In a press briefing in Davao City, ATF deputy secretary general Susan del Mundo said feedback from overseas has been overwhelming despite the negative travel advisories issued by some foreign governments against going to the Philippines.

"They cannot get travel insurance because of the negative advisories, but groups even from Germany, Russia and Poland are coming over here (in Davao City)," Del Mundo said.

It was only late this year when the hosting of the ATF 2006 was assigned to the Philippines after Myanmar, the event’s original host, had given up its 2006-2007 chairmanship of the ASEAN.

Nonetheless, extensive international promotion of the event being conducted by the Department of Tourism (DOT) has effectively stirred raves in the global industry.

Tapping its marketing arm — Philippine Convention and Visitors Corp. (PCVC) — the DOT has globally disseminated ATF information through foreign media releases, news updates, e-mail blitz, promo collaterals, the website www.atfdavao.com, events and field marketing, and all other below-the-line communications.

"All these would translate into thousands of foreign and local visitors flocking to Davao for the ATF 2006," Durano said.

The ATF is supported by the Philippine Airlines as head of the organizing body’s air transportation committee, TTG Asia Media Pte Ltd. as travel exchange organizer, CNN as official international cable and satellite media partner, and Travel Weekly, TTR Weekly and TTG Asia as official trade publications.

The nine-day event comprises a travel trade fair that will be staged at the NCCC Exhibition Center, and a series of conferences, business meetings and other functions slated in Davao City’s various first-class international hotels and resorts.