Rival NATAS travel fair opens; 26,500 visitors as of 8pm
The NATAS fair rival will include the ‘Big Four’ travel agencies that have spearheaded the boycott. TODAY file photo
SINGAPORE — The three-day Travel Revolution fair opened today (April 3). As at 8pm, some 26,500 people have visited the fair at the convention halls at Marina Bay Sands. And organisers are already planning to hold another fair in the second half of this year.
Travel Revolution is the rival fair to the one held by the National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) from March 6-8. Some 30 travel agencies are involved in the Travel Revolution fair. Among them are 24 which pulled out from the NATAS fair this year. The reasons for their pullout included high booth rentals and falling visitorship.
Visitors at today’s event were divided in their opinions of the two fairs. “You have a lot of free gifts. It’s comparable to NATAS fair,” said a visitor. “The Travel Revolution fair is smaller than the NATAS fair at Expo, and there is no food court outside here,” said another. “It’s always good to have other choices to shop around. Previously at NATAS fair, things were a bit expensive,” said a third visitor.
Larger travel agencies said because booth rentals at Travel Revolution fair are lower, they could pass on the cost savings.
Ms Jane Chang, head of marketing communications at Chan Brothers, said: “We have already realised savings of about 20 to 25 per cent and these savings are translated into offers which we are extending to our consumers.”
Chan Brothers is an industry heavyweight and one of the organisers of the Travel Revolution fair. It said response has been overwhelming and there are already plans to hold another fair in the second half of this year.
“There are definitely plans for Travel Revolution to continue for the second half of this year and based on the performance today and the savings we have realised, there is really no reason we should not continue,” said Ms Chang.
For smaller travel agencies like Travel Star, traffic to its booth has been slower compared with last year’s NATAS fair. It said this could be due to the Travel Revolution fair being held a month after this year’s NATAS fair. Another reason could be the long weekend and many people would have already headed overseas, it said.
Travel Star said its participation in future Travel Revolution fairs would depend on the date of the event. Zhang Lingna, marketing manager of Travel Star, said: “We do not want to lose our customers to other travel fairs. If the travel fair date falls on the same day or even earlier as NATAS travel fair, we will choose to join that. But if the travel fair date is later than NATAS’, we think we are not able to attend.”
Organisers of Travel Revolution expect 80,000 visitors over the three days and some S$100 million in sales across the board. CHANNEL NEWSASIA
