S8 Exhibitions is rallying the luxury travel industry to support the government in its campaign to gather inbound tourism by bringing more warm bodies to the Philippines through the holding of the 3rd Asia Premium Travel Mart (APTM) from  June 21 -22 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The APTM will bring together travel and tourism business operators as well as hotel and airline companies in one venue to show what the Philippines can offer to luxury travels. “The two-day exhibit is open for business-to-business transactions only. We have invited travel operators abroad to meet with their local counterparts here. We are expecting over 100 participants from countries such as Iran, Russia, China, Europe, America, and Asia, ” said Mary Anne Ong, president of the APTM.

Together with the backing of luxury travel executives, Ong affirmed that the Philippines is ready to cater to the discriminating taste of global luxury travelers. “We have the facilities in place and the establishments to give luxury travelers an experience of a lifetime in the Philippines… An average traveler spends about $6,000 to $7,000 per visit,” she added.

Meanwhile, Fe Abling – Yu, veteran travel industry expert and a director of S8 Exhibitions, explained that the incident in Marawi is an “isolated case” and should not dampen the spirit of the industry.  “The Marawi incident, we hope, could be solved in less than 60 days, and we [also] hope there would be no further declarations [of martial law]in other areas in the country,” Yu said.

The APTM is a project of S8 Exhibition Inc. in coordination with the Tourism Promotions Board of the Department of Tourism.