PATA Board Gathers to Protect Travel Industry

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Board of Directors meeting opened in Singapore today with PATA’s Board and committee members gathering to discuss the next steps in implementing PATA’s strategic agenda.

Committee and Board members will devise ways to further PATA’s objectives of positioning, promoting and protecting travel to and within the Asia Pacific region on behalf of PATA’s 1,200 member organisations.

The importance of the task ahead is reflected in the strong international turnout. Some 143 Board and committee members from 25 countries have been joined by 27 observers, making this the best-attended Board meeting since Honolulu in January 2001.

By listening to the opinions of PATA’s Board members who represent diverse concerns such as national tourism offices, airlines, airports, hotels, tour operators, payment companies, and global distribution systems, PATA aims to expand its ability to defend travel and tourism in Asia Pacific, especially in times of crisis.

PATA President and CEO, Mr. Peter de Jong, identified five key areas for the Board members to address: aviation issues, impediments to travel, raising the tourism portfolio in the political arena, the competitiveness of Asia Pacific travel and tourism, reputation management for the region, and the next steps in PATA's cultural and environmental protection agenda.

He said: “The lesson from the last six months has been that travel and tourism is simply too important to the people in our region for us to allow the industry to be hurt by setbacks such as SARS again.”

Board members will see a multimedia presentation showing the key initiatives of PATA’s Project Phoenix, which was designed to reinstate global consumer confidence in Asia Pacific following SARS and the conflict in Iraq.

Mr. de Jong said: “PATA’s strategic agenda requires a clear vision and a pro-active stance in managing issues that will most directly impact our members’ ability to do business successfully.”