Virtual PATA Travel Mart & Sichuan Travel Expo Sept 23-27, 2020

Exhibition
Virtual PATA Travel Mart 2020, organized in conjunction with the Sichuan International Travel Expo (SITE), supported by Leshan Tourism Bureau, a virtual platform powered by Dragon Trail attracted sellers and buyers from around 40 destinations. Total buyers were 150 from China, India, Australia, USA, Latin America, Europe, the Pacific Islands. About 20+ Chinese firms.

Pacific Countries Participation
Samoa Tourism Authority, Solomon Tourism and Kiribati National Tourism Office attended PTM Virtual 2020. Overall, many Pacific countries are first time exhibitor online. We all experience some technical issues. However, we are generally glad to meet with some buyers from several countries

Virtual Events Pros and Cons
Virtual trade shows or Online roadshow, are the most recent trends affecting the travel industry. Essentially the virtual show is similar to a traditional event, but the entire event is based online or hybrid. The benefits are saving money and time, no need to travel etc. But wait, what is the catch? The fact that there is no actual interaction between buyer and exhibitor seems to be the biggest drawback. Online Chat and video call can only do so much. Human touch is very important, especially for the travel industry, less for ICT.

Reality Check – Technology
Since March 2020, Chinese buyers and sellers start to participate in online events, starting with Webinar. In the beginning, everyone is enthusiastic, but it dies down after two months. E-learning on the other hand seems acceptable. This is followed by Online roadshow and Virtual expo. According to CTO interview with travel industry participants in the past 4 virtual events in China, average participant experience 20% to 30% technical issues: not able to hear in a video call, system freeze, time zone issues, seller/buyer not showing up, difficulty to sell through online, connection not stable and more. Even a big company like Tencent Cloud company share technical issues.

LIVE Exhibition vs Virtual Event
Virtual PATA Travel Mart attracted 1000 delegates during Sept 23-27 event. This is to compare with recent Samoa Tourism participation in Guangzhou CITIE live expo, where 1000 brochures were distributed in 1.5 days. In conclusion, we believe technology is useful and important especially during Covid19 period, but we also think about the ROI, the right tool and how to make an effective campaign

(Source: Welcome China)