This year's show drew 280 buyers compared to last year's 353, a drop many attributed to the regional economic crisis, and the cost of attending too many trade shows.
But low rates in Asia did not stop overseas buyers from asking hoteliers to drop their rates even further, some hotel sales staff said.
The Shilla Cheju manager, marketing, Seok-Ho Hong, of South Korea, said negotiations were tough because buyers were asking for big discounts, despite the Asian economic downturn.
Most of the buyers he saw were from Europe, including Norway, Finland, France, the United Kingdom and Belgium. He had only two no-shows.
He expected more meetings and incentives buyers at the mart, but saw mainly free and independent (FIT) travel buyers. "Seventy per cent are FIT packages and the other 30 per cent was conference and incentive [business]."
Singapore-based Jet Airways general sales agent Sylvia Johney, of GS Travel, said although her appointments schedule at the Mart was "quite good", her presence was purely promotional, because most clients would go back to buy Jet Airways tickets from their respective countries. She said the Mart overall was quiet. "We should have had more people walking down this aisle."
She said the Singapore trade day on the last day of the Mart was "not encouraging at all".
She expected to see a lot of Singapore agents, but there were few. "I think they don't have staff to spare - that's another problem because of the recession."
Summit Hotels & Resorts marketing and media communications manager, Asia Pacific, Julie Beattie, said the Mart was a good time to build data bases, renew contacts and keep updated on changes in the travel industry.
Although the show started positively, 'with a lot of energy', "Everyone is just so exhausted from a very hard year. There's a lot of pressure, and a lot of pressure to come back with very positive results."
Tourism Authority of Thailand director Chamnan Muangtim said PTM was a good venue for a national tourism organisation (NTO) to promote its products. "We had lots of buyers' appointments," he said. He did not think there were too many trade shows. "We also will attend ITE and ITA in Hong Kong, so Asia is still our main market because of the numbers of tourists."
Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) senior executive, marketing division, Cynthia Cheang said things were "quite slow" this year. "Last year I think there were more buyers. Maybe there's too many travel fairs," she said.
Many buyers were interested in Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions (MICE) in Macau, and most wanted to package the Pearl River Delta, including Macau with China, she said.
Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) information officer Mohan Bhurtel said, "I think there should be more buyers here."
He said Europe, India, Australia, Japan and America were Nepal's main markets, with India the largest, accounting for 35 per cent of the country's arrivals. The NTB took part in ITB in Berlin this year, would attend EIBTM and was likely to be at WTM this year.