In order to immerse students into the current world of the travel industry, Southville’s ABM strand held its first CEO Forum for 2022 titled “The Reemerging Flight: A New Tomorrow for the Travel Industry” virtually via Zoom last February 8.
Tradewings Tours & Travel Corporation General Manager Ms. Feliz Axalan was invited by to speak and enlighten the students regarding the travel industry explaining the changes and developments it underwent over the pandemic. senior high students were invited to attend the forum and learn more about the experiences.
The CEO Forum is a bi-annual SISC event wherein business owners are invited by ABM students to speak about their journey and experiences of running a business. This year's talk was organized by 12-Service ABM.
The event began with opening remarks led by SISC Basic Ed Principal Dr. Marie Vic “Avic” Suarez. She talked about what separates entrepreneurs and the working class. Dr. Avic also referenced a quote from Steve Jobs, “The thing that separates successful entrepreneurs and non successful ones is pure perseverance.”
The main speaker then took the virtual stage. Ms. Feliz began by introducing herself and her business then talked about the experience her business went through when the pandemic started. She mentioned that during the early days in 2020, up until a few weeks before the pandemic, Tradewings Tours & Travel was able to host events and travel around the country.
She moved on to speak about the adjustments they had to make to acclimate to the new circumstances brought about by the pandemic. The company started offering webinars over the pandemic to reskill its agents. They also made a Facebook group called PH Travel Agents Marketplace to support travel agents who diverted to selling other things.
The main points of Ms. Feliz’s talk revolved around the company’s innovations and changes. They did online travel expos where they offered X Deals in order to support travel agencies. Many different mediums were explored, including creating a Youtube channel called Tours R' Us that posts travel guides and episodes for their entertainment talk show The Orange Room Series.
Before the pandemic, Tradewings Tours & Travel only offered international travel packages. However, this changed as they started to offer local travel packages and even created Quarantine Packages for returning Filipinos.
To prepare for the reopening of the travel industry and to encourage people to travel in the pandemic age, the company started offering virtual walking tours on Tours R' Us. Ms. Feliz mentioned that she personally took 360 degree walking tour videos around Switzerland, and began to film more in other European countries for YouTube videos. She also shined some light upon isolated getaway location options for the holidays or just for a safe quarantine getaway.
The event was highly engaging for listeners, especially during the game portion of the program. A Kahoot game was presented for viewers to join in order to test their knowledge and even win prizes. Participants enjoyed the game and were eager to compete for the prizes. The CEO Forum ended with some closing remarks and a photo opportunity in order to document and commemorate the event.
Each topic the speaker touched on really appealed to the students. The participants being highly active during the question and answer session showed that they genuinely took an interest in the content of the discussion. By noon, the event had come to an end with students gaining many new insights and learnings.
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