Despite the heavy drubbing that the Philippines got after the bloody Manila hostage-drama last week, representatives of nearly 100 travel agencies and tour operators from around the world still attended a major tourism convention in Manila on Friday to do business in the country.
Welcomed by the festive beats of drums and gongs, 96 foreign delegates—including two from Hong Kong and eight from mainland China—attended the Philippine Travel Exchange 2010 at the Manila Hotel, where they hammered out business deals with representatives of 112 Filipino resorts, hotels, and other local tourism companies.
The delegates came from Australia, Austria, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Spain, Taiwan, the US, and Vietnam.
"I am truly grateful that despite the challenges that we faced the past week and a half, we were still able to attract 96 foreign delegates from around the world and 191 Filipino sellers representing 112 companies," Tourism Secretary Alberto Lim told the gathering.
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