NYT Travel Show

Every year over 20,000 travelers and industry professionals head to New York City for the annual New York Times Travel show.

With over 500 booths representing countries and companies from around the world, the New York Times Travel Show is one of the largest travel shows of its kind.

In addition to travel seminars, the NYT Travel show offers onsite deals and offers, lets you meet experts on various destinations, has numerous stage performances, provides various food presentations, and has multiple book signings.

Whether you have your eye on a specific destination or you are not sure where you want to travel to next, the New York Times Travel Show is the perfect place to go to collect destination information and meet people from around the world.

Day 1: Trade Day

New York Times Travel Show Trade Day

[@willdrinkfortravel, @gtstiletto, me, @kimberlynatasha, and @ny_hollyday]

The first day of the New York Times Travel Show was Trade Day, which was a day that was open exclusively to travel professionals and travel media.

During Trade Day, travel professionals and travel media had the opportunity to sit in on panel sessions (just like during the consumer days) however there were significantly less people in attendance. In addition, travel media and travel professionals had the opportunity to hold interviews with exhibitors and speakers, and to do some live filming about the opening day.

On the first day, I sat in on a panel about South Africa, a place I will be traveling to this spring, met up with some of my travel blogging friends, watched the official ribbon cutting ceremony, and had a chance to walk around the exhibition floor, where I had my name written in Arabic by the good folks over at the Etihad exhibit.

NYT Travel Show Etihad Arabic Name

Day 2: Consumer Day 

JetSetSarah

with @JetSetSarah, the resident Caribbean Expert

The second day of the NYT Travel Show was Consumer Day, and the doors were opened to the general public.

Immediately after arriving, I headed over to the ‘Meet The Experts Section’, where I got to meet JetSetSarah (who I interviewed in 2014 ) for the first time in person.

Sarah was serving as the resident expert on all things Caribbean, and provided her expertise to people who were interested in exploring all that the Caribbean had to offer.

JetSetSarah and FlySights

After leaving the Meet the Experts section, I walked around the floor, talked to different tourism organizations, and entered a few contests.

I then headed over to the booth for the Department of State, where my friend Emmanuel was informing people about the importance of getting their passports and enrolling in the Global Entry program.

Department of State

After leaving the United States, I headed over to Asia, where I met some beautiful Indonesians in traditional garb and ate a piece of Wingko Babat, an Indonesian snack made from coconut.

Indonesian NYT Travel Show

I then made my way over to Japan to talk with some of the representatives about my upcoming return trip to the country.

While talking to some of the staff members from the Japan Rail company about the JR Pass, I ran into fellow New York City travel bloggers from Dish Our Town.

We plopped some JR train conductor hats on our heads and smiled eagerly for the cameras.

Dish Hour Town

With fellow NYC travel bloggers @DishOurTown

I left the exhibition floor and made my way downstairs to where the panels were being held. I decided that since I intend to travel to Cuba in the very near future that I would attend a panel on Cuba.

Most of the panelists who spoke represented companies that would take people to Cuba legally through people-to-people programs. Most of the discussion was about what each of their companies could offer to people who were interested in traveling to Cuba.

Cuba Panel New York Times Travel Show

Not wanting to miss any of the food sessions, I headed back upstairs to the exhibition floor, where I listened to Chef Sara Jenkins and Mitchell Davis discussing the street food culture in Italy versus the United States.

Chef Sara also prepared a special treat for the audience: porchetta (Italian boneless pork roast) sandwiches, and the audience went wild.

Porchetta New York Times Travel Show

I concluded my second day at the show by heading over to Atlantic City, where I attempted to win a free night at one of the many Atlantic City hotels.

DO AC

Day 3: Consumer Day

Culture Bazaar

A lot of culture: @TheCultureBazaar x Cultural Xplorer

The final day of the New York Times Travel Show was full of a lot of selfies (and posting pictures on my Facebook page and Instagram account).

I met up with the travelers from the website The Culture Bazaar, and we discussed our upcoming travel plans and goals for our different brands.

We then headed over to Malaysia, where we met some lovely women from Tourism Malaysia. We had fun chatting with them about their country, playing with some of their stuffed animals, and taking a selfie.

Tourism Malaysia NYT Travel Show

Tourism Malaysia Selfie

We then made our way back into the United States and made a pit stop in New York State before heading over to the United Arab Emirates, where we found ourselves at the Etihad booth.

Besides stepping into their Residence (which helped them to land the Best In Show award), we had the opportunity to meet some of the Etihad crew, I talked to them about my upcoming trip to both Dubai and South Africa, and we took yet another selfie.

Etihad Flight Attendants

Etihad selfie

Even though I have been staying local for the past six or so months, I loved that I was able to travel around the world in my own back yard at The New York Times Travel Show.


Have you ever attended the New York Times Travel Show before?