Travel Tour Expo 2015

Hooray for tourism! It's my first time to visit an expo that has nothing to do with cosplay or food or consumer products, which is why it was very interesting to go to this year's Travel Tour Expo. The moment you step into SMX you know they mean serious business because they booked all of the function halls of the first and second floor. I have no concrete quotations of SMX, but based from what I know, to be able to rent all of those function halls, it will probably be at 10-20 million pesos depending on other terms and conditions. But well, that's not a 100% sure quotation, but for sure it does not come cheap.

I understand why they do this though. Last year, I saw that they earned 500 million pesos in the span of three days! THREEEE DAYSSS!

That's because of a few factors probably. One is that the people who go here are ready to travel and come armed with their credit cards and dream vacations in their mind. Another is that travel agencies and airlines give crazily cheap rates for their services. And the last and most important reason is because you can only avail of all those aforementioned crazy discounts when you go to the expo.

The place was brimming with people, but thankfully, since SMX is very big it doesn't feel so bad.

On the pavillions in the first floor are mostly booths of foreign countries' tourism organizations to attract people to visit their country. There was a booth for every country imaginable for vacationing, but here are some.

The Japan booth with cosplayers to attract guests. This is a visit Kansai booth.

The Taiwan booth that even offers free DIY activities. My mom got to make and take home her own lucky charm here.

AND LOOK AT THIS CUTIE PIE.

I wasn't able to take a pic of it but the Philippines booth is so funny because to keep people entertained they have a game show. The guests are given remote controls (like those that people click on game shows) and then they are quizzed about scenic places in the Philippines.

The Korea booth is all about spring blossoms. They have cute girls in hanbok to attract visitors.

Best in showmanship would be Guam with their own instrumentalists and dancers.

I have no idea why or how this mecha cosplayer is related to Duty Free, but well he seems to be an efficient mascot for the brand.

Best in mascot would be 2GO with this suuuper adorable boat mascot huhu so cute

Since Citibank is probably their partner, they had promos eveeryywheeere. Like this one. There's this other promo wherein if you spend 5000 with your Citibank card you get a free beauty kit with full sized Olay and Pantene. There's also another promo wherein if you use your Citibank card to PayLite a 25000 purchase you get a free buffet ticket for Vikings.

This is the second floor, but in no way is it less livelier. There are still a lot of people walking around, hoping to get the best trips possible.

This is PAL's huge, huuuge, huuuuuuuuge booth. They had a crazy discount on seats this expo which is why the lines were sooooo crazzzily loooooong. They even had to have the stereotypical tattooed macho guys to act as bouncers because there were so many people lining up to buy seats at this booth.

The whole booth is New York themed because starting March this year, PAL will now have direct flights to New York.

It's so funny whenever I use manual mode and people walk around. This is what happens.

And hooray let's not forget my friend Ramon's new hotel! It's called Hive and is somewhere in the QC area. This is their second hotel, after Cocoon, and is just as eco friendly as the former.

They're marketing this more as a convention hall and events place, but well, countless brides have had the same fun at Cocoon nonetheless.

There were several airlines here, but I only remember Malaysia airlines and PAL. Either I have poor noticing skills or maybe their booths were not attractive enough.

And say hi to the Indonesia booth.

Since this expo is all about travel, even TLC had a booth. I have no idea who would sign up on the spot for their channel though. I mean I love watching TLC and all, but I have no idea who would randomly stop to call their cable operator to talk about this while they probably have Paris or Tokyo on their minds hahahahaha

I have no idea if this is funded by Mayor Duterte, but may I say that Davao's booth is huuuuge.

No food and beverages are allowed because of all the food here. There are food concessionnaires selling all sorts of local and imported food, and there are of course food courts in here as well.

The Hokkaido booth says hi.

This is a Citibank claiming station. The concept is soooo adorable!

Since circle lenses are Korea's pride, there was also a booth promoting them.

Like I said, everything related to travel is in this expo, which is why there were also stores like these selling luggage. There were also other shops selling iPad and iPhone cases, travel bags, travel essentials, and others.