3 MINUTE TRAVEL POP
The Journey of the Global Community of Filipino World Travelers: From Travel Books, Presidential Courtesy Call, to a Travel Museum
BIO
Donalito “Dondon” Bales, Jr. is a Philippine-born leader, community builder, and world traveler based in Melbourne. He serves on the NomadMania Executive Committee, leads its Sustainable Travel Committee, and is a co-envoy for Australia. He was also a panel speaker at ETF 1 in Yerevan in 2022 and co-emcee of the NomadMania Travel Awards at ETF 2 in Bangkok in 2024.
He has circumnavigated the globe four times and visited more than 180 countries and territories across all seven continents.
Known as the godfather of the global Filipino explorer community, he founded the Filipino World Travelers (FWT) and authored Gala: Adventures of the Most Well-Traveled Filipinos, which was recognized by the President of the Philippines in 2025. In 2026, he is preparing to launch a second travel book and the FWT Museum — the first of its kind in the Philippines dedicated to Filipino global explorers, an idea that emerged during FWT’s participation at ETF 2.
ETF I – Arrmenia
SPEAKING TOPIC
Author Panel
Gunnar Garfors, a published author himself, will be hosting this panel of travel authors (Boris Kester, Odette Ricasa, Donalito Bales, Jr). I think many of us in the travel community at one time or another have either been asked or pondered the question, should I write a book about my travel tales. The panel will be sharing the trials and tribulations of writing their books. They will overview the actual mechanics of writing a book, publishing, the costs, and the myriads of other things they learned during the process. And the authors will highlight some of their favorite stories from their books.
