SEATTLE SIGHTSEEING

Seattle in Washington State is known for its coffee culture, the birthplace of Starbucks, the grunge music scene, the headquarters of Amazon and Microsoft, and one of the best food markets in the world - Pike Place Market!

- PEPPER TEEHANKEE

I've never been to Seattle so I jumped at the opportunity to go with the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA) on a familiarization trip with Philippine Airlines (PAL), which just started flying into Seattle this month.

Established in 1979, PTAA is a union of national associations of outbound travel agencies and inbound tour operators. It was created to foster unity in the Philippine travel industry and now has over 500 members. The direct nonstop 14-hour flight aims to serve one of the largest Filipino communities in the USA and started strong with a passenger load factor of roughly 85 percent.

PAL president, Capt. Stanley Ng, said the decision to fly to Seattle was to connect the Philippines to more destinations in the USA, as well as bring tourists and investments to the Philippines.

Members of the PTAA worked on business-to-business meetings with Seattle-based companies to bring in more tourists to the Philippines.

Ng added that Alaskan Airlines is a partner of PAL and that people can connect to other cities in the USA (including nearby Alaska), through Seattle. Asked what he liked about PAL's new destination, he said he loved the good coffee, nature, dining by the bay, and his favorite Seattle landmark - the Space Needle!

The Space Needle is the icon of the city and was built for the 1962 World's Fair. Elevators take visitors to an observation deck 160 meters high in 41 seconds, which offers panoramic views of the downtown Seattle skyline, the Olympic and Cascade Mountains, Mount Rainier, Mount Baker, Elliott Bay, and various islands in Puget Sound.