Los Angeles Times Travel Show

I had a good time visiting with the different vendors and the tours they offer. I found some cool trips I would love to take. I guess I was expecting more travel companies to be there. The sponsors had bigger booths with larger displays and they tended to fill up their space. Some booths were empty with just flyers on a table and this was Saturday mid day. I am not sure if it was worth the price of parking and admission. I did have good time thought learning about some companies I had never heard of and some countries I was sort of familiar with but did not know much of. I may go again in several years but probably not every year.

The next destination awaits…
A good inspiration point for your next travel adventure — that is, if you do not already know where you want to go.
If you want to get the full Travel Show Experience, it is best if you have a plan. So, check out the show information newspaper that comes out the Sunday before the show.
Arrive early. There are pros at the Travel show that know how to navigate from booth to booth, coming prepared with a rolling suitcase to put all the brochures they get. And, you will get a lot of information, so a rolling suitcase (small) is not a bad idea (I realized this after I left the show when I was carrying a load back to my car).
One amusing note is that they have a bar in the middle of the show. While I was going from booth to booth, I notices a pair of girls with Mai Tai’s in hand.

I found the travel show a disappointment. Not much excitement or energy. It was Sunday afternoon and maybe that had something to do with empty vendor booths. African safaris were well represented but there was almost nothing for northern or western Europe. We were interested in S. America, spoke with the 2 tour companies serving S. America that were there and they were helpful. I wanted information on river rafting in western US; there was nothing. I attended another travel show at the convention center several years ago that was more comprehensive and by comparison this one was only so-​so.

The travel show this year was a HUGE disappointment. We had been there last year
and spent an entire day and had a great time. There were less than half the
exhibitors than were there last year. Maybe even less than that. We can only assume
that they decided to charge the exhibitors an exorbitant price and many of them chose
not to pay it. We asked one of the people who worked as an exhibitor and she said
that they were really surprised as well. She suggested that we go to the Long Beach
travel show in February. I don’t know how something sponsored by the LA Times
could go so far downhill in one year.

If you are NOT going to have a climbing wall, animals, a zip line and huge inflatable balls for kids, then DON’T advertise it as if you are. Waste of time and money.
But if you are looking to collect brochures from various vendors this is your place

This was my first time attending the show. Came on the Saturday from 3−5pm (closing). It was a good amount of time to go through just about everything. I did wish the countries decorated their booths a bit more. Taiwan did a great job with their display – it’s the first booth you see when we entered the show.
Admission is $ 10 but I didn’t know that if I used a code that was offered on the LA Times’ Facebook page, I could have gotten $ 2 off. I also learned from a fellow Unilocaler that if you show your TAP card, you can get $ 3. I used neither. Whoops. Parking by the convention center was $ 15.
The travel show was a great platform for more exposure to what is out there in the world. It definitely made me feel like I was missing out on so much. There’s tons to see. You will come home with tons of papers and brochures, and the urge to travel – me and my bf certainly did. It was helpful to be able to ask the reps at the different booths random questions about the particular destinations. It’s also a good time to get information from various travel agencies, cruise lines, wineries, or tours for future use. There’s also tons of great travel deals. If you are a travel enthusiast, definitely make the time to check the show out.

«The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.»
2013 Los Angeles Times Travel Show. It was my very first time attends the show.
I was surprise to see Ecuador booth was so well organized and interesting, perhaps more so than the Taiwan one, which was from what I heard was the best in the show, Bravo to fellow Ecuador who did a fabulous job promoted the country tough culture dance.

They also gave out many freebie via raffles such as Ecuador Panama hat ! hotel and even Galapagos trip. Those will not did not win any raffle included me, can get some fresh roses. That booth cover just about you want to explore in Ecuador, from Amazonian jungle to Galapagos.
Taiwan booth was pretty traditional. it offer free sample of boba and some Taiwanese traditional dance, but most people interesting was their grand price int he raffle «Free Airfare Round Trip to Taipei» odds is not too bad consider in couple hundred and No, I did not win !
Other booth is not that great, too small and lack elements, the South k
Most people come to the show is to see the Keynote Speaker, such the one who host Amazing Race and many other, those worth the admission alone I think, but most speaker you and I probably had no clue who is till you google or wiki them.
The most interesting in the show was there is a North Korea, my first though WHAAAAAT NOOORTH KOREA tour? I though it was a joke, but is. not There is actually just a group of American when to that country lasts year via than agency and yes they did COME BACK.

It does cost arm and leg, easily over $ 2000. So asking youself, would rather rather spend that money in one week in Paris or in North Korea… But again someone out they’re always want something trutly exotic. There is one more exotic place that is Azerbaijan who try to promoted their hiking destination, which happens to be the border of Iran… Clearly this destination is not for 99.99% of us.
There is something for everyone here, if you cannot spend a lot of money in foreign trip. You can just head to Catalina Express or Twentynine Palms.
TIPS:
Only 1 hall in the show plus the keynote speaker room
Get your shredder ready, you would expect to thrown most of those away after you come back.

Awful. State and country travel bureaus displaying pamphlets on tables. Nothing you can’t do online for free and without the crowd.

For a travel enthusiast, this is a great event to be at. I went half expecting it to be a lame event with a handful of vendors but it turned out to be much larger than expected.
— Admission is $ 10, but you get $ 3 if you show them your TAP (LA metro card).
— If you’re a Goldstar member, you sometimes can score free tickets. =)
— Well organized by countries
— Go EARLY! free turns at zipline, bubble roller (where you’re put into a huge transparent ball and roll around, rock wall, and a trampoline wall. Lines form fast and they close these out close to the end
–There’s no food here… no samples. well just one, but hardly counted
–Take the metro! Parking here is about $ 15-​$ 20 if you get lot parking.
— 3 different speakers going on at the same time
–events!
… probably can spend 2 – 3 hours here depending on if you want to talk to tour companies. I picked up a good bag of stuff so I can get an idea of the «standard» itineraries to build my next travels on! A really nice way to get your feet wet into the traveling world. :)

2013 show was pretty good — better than the Long Beach travel show.
This one was well organized, tickets printed ahead of time saved a lot of time!
We found our summer trip plans and next year’s trip plans fulfilled by the vendors.
Chumash Casino had the best giveaway — wine server, corker, and preserver plus buckets of butter cookies!

This is my first time at the Los Angeles Time Travel Show. Honestly, I’ve been going to trade shows and conventions for decades. (Somehow was a little bit involved in this field for a while) Trade shows has really gone down… There were a few exhibitors but not enough to call it a trade show in my opinion.
A lot of vendors were there from different airlines and tourism, cruises, Vacation get aways, or just a weekend getaway, The best one was Taiwan Tourism. They hired Wasabi– The DJ from Chinese Radio station 1430AM to host their show. She did an excellent job. They had games and entertainment. My mother had the guts to go one stage to play fish the beer bottle and she won first place! LOL!
We picked up a few brochures and did indeed enjoy ourselves! Not too many giveaways, but bags and pens, and little swags like that.
I took the entire family!
Thank you Brittany B. and Unilocal for sending me 2 free tickets, so I ended only purchasing 2 tickets overall!

So I decided to kill an afternoon at the travel show in the LA convention center. Managed to stop by the Unilocal booth to pickup some schwag. Well i guess i cant say i never got anything from Unilocal.As for the show its lost a bit of its lustre. Used to be that countries would show up with fancy display booths but now its more like a country booth with travel agents and tour brochures.
The only country that does a first rate job is taiwan from year to year their booth has cultural events and activities.

We’re at the point in our lives where NOW is the time to see the world.
Kids are grown, no grandchildren (yet) to hang around with, we’re physically able, etc.
Thing is, we’ve both got very different ideas on where we want to go.
High on my bucket list is a castle tour in Europe and seeing the Northern Lights in Alaska.
He wants to go to somewhere tropical and warm.
So, to help ourselves choose, we went to the travel show.
(To tell the truth, now we’re even more undecided.)
We talked to many representatives who told us about the grandeur of their countries.
Picked up many brochures that are now waiting for us to browse through.
Argh. Too many dream vacations to choose from!
Other pluses to the travel show were some activities such as a free zipline!
If I wasn’t wearing a dress, I so would’ve done this! The hubby was kind of dragging his feet about trying it, but some older guys got right into line and he sorta got shamed into it. Hahaha! He had fun!
We’re now definitely going to zipline on our upcoming Hawaii vacation.
At various booths, they took our pictures and superimposed them into scenery.
We’ve got a great pic of us with South Korea’s Jeju Island in the background, but well, I’m doing the anonymous Unilocaler thing so no sharing that.
Plenty of swag! We came home with all kinds of goodies!
Also picked up passport applications and information.
Unilocal was one of the sponsors so we said «Hi» to the interns.
I didn’t want to check in and get some Unilocal Swag, but did get an «I love Unilocal!» sticker.
Too bad we were on a time schedule. We would have liked to sit down and listen to some of the speakers. Looked like they were telling some interesting travel stories.
Oh yeah, I said «Hi!» to KTLA news anchor Mark Kriski.
He’s even better looking in person!
This was time well-​spent.
I’d recommend going (in upcoming years) if you’re struck by wanderlust.
Tip: Go early on Sunday. You can park free on a nearby street and save yourself a $ 15 lot fee.

Travel show was fun — there was lots to see! Not as many exhibitors as expected, but still a great convention! Highlight was Adam Richman (Man V. Food) signing his newest book & Tea Station boba!!! Just a little sad that they weren’t selling it… I was so thirsty/​hungry by the end of the day, I offered them $ 20 for a boba and they wouldn’t give me one!!!

The Unilocal booth was so small! It took forever to find!
I liked the schwag! The girls were nice!
Adam Richman from Man vs Food (Nation).
Cultural Performances all day!
Free pictures taken at Korea Booth!
Free parlor games at Taiwan Booth!
Free mini drinks at Japan Booth!
Free Bags! FREE BAGS! Wait, where did you get that bag?
Short review cause I’m sleepy!
Short sentences!
Come back next year, yes!