After a late night of revelry to mark the conclusion of the 2023 Philippine Travel Exchange (PHITEX), held in Cebu City over the course of three days, I awakened at first light on the day of our departure to get ready to leave the Fili Hotel at 6:30 am.
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| White water rafting is always the highlight of any CDO trip |
If the walls of the gleaming convention halls at Fili Hotel at Nustar Cebu could talk, they would recount the incredible numbers that provide a vivid picture of the phenomenal success of the Philippine Travel Exchange (PHITEX 2023) this year. There were 164 Filipino vendors, 88 international purchasers, 296,000,000 pesos in negotiated transactions, and unending, positive word-of-mouth praise for the Philippines.
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| Tabletop meetings resulted in record deals for both buyers and sellers |
Marky Ramone Go is a travel-junkie, writer and photographer based in the Philippines. Aside from contributing articles to various publications and websites, he narrates his experiences wandering the tropical paradise of the Philippines, the culturally rich regions of South East Asia, Sri Lanka and India on this travel blog. After Asia, he is keen on exploring South America and eventually tracing Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" trail in the United States to Mexico.
