TACLOBAN CITY – Rhoel Ladera is excited to travel to Manila because this is the first time he is joining the Philippine Travel Mart at SMX along with other friends to sell group tours of tourist destinations in Eastern Visayas at this event.
Ladera is a young businessman who lost almost everything after supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name Haiyan) decimated Eastern Visayas last November 8, 2013.
Not only his printing and car rental business bounced back, he and his friends Jadway Go and Wowie Veloso, who share the same passion in helping sell the region, put up Aqua Momentum Company this year.
“We are happy to put up a booth at the 27th Philippine Travel Mart from September 2-14 which serves as platform for selling your products. Thousands of travelers flocked at the event looking for destinations and new adventures,” Ladera said.
Interestingly, the Tacloban City booth was awesomely designed by Nick Guarino and his team using indigenous materials in the region, won second Best Booth in the booth competition of the said event.
The Philippine Travel Mart now on its 27th year is organized by the Philippine Travel Tour Operators (PHILTOA). It is an annual travel and trade exhibition to help travelers explore treasure destinations in the country and other countries for amazing deals.
Aqua Momentum is promoting Tacloban City with the San Juanico speedboat tour as its added attraction. It showcases the beautiful San Juanico Strait and the San Juanico Bridge, the longest in Southeast Asia at 2.16km length.
“We will let the tourists experience history by landing at Red Beach in Palo, Leyte just like General Douglas MacArthur did in World War II liberation. Then an excursion follows at the MacArthur Landing Memorial National Park,” Ladera said.
“The tourists will be excited with our tour of San Pedro Bay and the famed Rock formations of Marabut, Samar. It will start off at Tacloban City then to Marabut, Samar. They get to explore the hidden lagoon of Marabut too,” he added.
Not only that they will be selling speedboat tours for Tacloban, they also have tour packages for Kalanggaman Island in Palompon, Leyte; Sambawan Island in Maripipi, Biliran and the Kalanggaman/Malapascua tours.
People may not know this yet that Tacloban City is the fastest way to go to Malapascua in Cebu. They can have a day tour in Tacloban and hopped to Kalanggaman, now considered as the jewel destination of Leyte, then to Malapascua.
“We want to show the people that Tacloban has bounced-back beautifully after being the ground zero of Yolanda. Aqua Momentum, as a new player in the tourism industry, has tour packages that range from P1,600 and up,” Ladera said.
(VICKY C. ARNAIZ)
