Bloggers and travel agents together

After some juggling of dates due to the busy schedules of both groups, I was finally able to bring some bloggers and Davao travel agents together for an informal powwow. Five travel agency owners and managers attended, as well as five bloggers including myself. We got together yesterday at Coffee SPOT, whose owner generously sponsored our refreshments. Thanks Rhea!

This was the first of a series of gatherings I've been cooking up for bloggers and other groups. The objecive is two-fold: for more people to appreciate blogs and blogging; and for bloggers to be able to connect with people directly involved in the things that the former write about.

Yesterday was all about the travel and tourism industry. Since some of us blog about places to see in Davao, what better way to get fresh insights and more material than to talk to travel professionals?

The travel agents were clearly eager to know more about the world of blogs. So much so that they've invited me to conduct a blogging workshop for their group, the Davao Association of Tour Operators (DATO). And thanks to that get-together, they've come to realize how powerful bloggers' voices can be. Now they're starting to see that blogs are an effective way to promote their products, namely, tours and travel destinations.

The bloggers, on the other hand, now have access to travel consultants; ergo, now they have sources for richer and broader content for their blogs. For example, Ria Jose of MyDavaoCity.com has been invited to join a major tour to be conducted by DATO this week. The Association is expecting 100+ visitors and will run a special tour of Davao and Samal Island this weekend. And Ria will surely be able to get tons of bloggable material from that -- stuff she might not be able to do on her own.


The travel agents who met up with us were: Alex Divinagracia (Global Wings Travel); Edmund "Mon" Mayormita (Travel Advantage Tours); Ruben Neri (Surelite Travel & Tours); Dizon Namuag (Dizerlin Travel & Tours, based in Panabo); and, Pia Partoza-Montaño (Par Travel & Tours).

The bloggers: Andrew, Blogie, Christian, Dom and Ria.

I'll be coming up with more of these meet-ups real soon. Potential target groups include: hoteliers, restaurateurs, and real estate brokers. Watch out for that!

[Photo courtesy of Christian Te]