IN A bid to change how Filipino travelers view roaming, Smart Communications has partnered with the Travel Sale Fair — which runs from Oct. 12 to 14 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City — to promote their new travel products and packages.
“We felt we wanted to take our travel products to the next level and improving our user experience,” Katrina Luna-Abelarde, FVP and group head of international roaming & carrier business for PLDT and Smart, told reporters shortly after a press conference on Oct. 8 at Sentro 1771 restaurant in Makati City.
“When you say ‘roaming’ it’s associated with so many negative things — it’s expensive, it’s not seamless — and we wanted to change that,” she explained.
During the three-day fair, Ms. Luna-Abelarde said they will be offering their data roaming products for half-off their original prices so travelers “can enjoy a more convenient and worry-free getaways in over 153 destinations,” she said in a release.
The offer includes half-off for its GigaRoam which offers 1GB data roaming valid for five days (regular price: P999) and the Roam Lite which offers web surfing and social media apps access valid for 24 hours (regular price: as low as P150).
Smart also offers data packs for select social media and messaging apps starting at P150, valid for 24 hours. These data packs, she said, are targeted more towards prepaid subscribers which she says is a growing market for the telecom’s roaming products.
Travelers who attend the fair can pre-book the packages for future trips and the service is available in 153 countries.
“Unlike postpaid subscribers who want to see the bill afterwards, prepaid subscribers like to plan ahead and only subscribe to what they need,” she said before noting that many prepaid subscribers are millennials who love travelling on a budget.
And in the spirit of transparency and “giving back the control” to subscribers, Smart launched the Smart Data Roaming Manager portal that features all available data roaming products as well as keeps track of data roaming usage while on the go.
“This way, they know, in real-time, how much data they’ve consumed,” she said.
The Smart Travel Sale Fair runs from Oct. 12 to 14 at the World Trade Center in Pasay City.
Hastings Holdings, Inc., a unit of PLDT Beneficial Trust Fund subsidiary MediaQuest Holdings, Inc., has a stake in BusinessWorld through the Philippine Star Group, which it controls. — ZBC

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