PATA Partners Professional Travel Bloggers Association

PATA has partnered the Professional Travel Bloggers Association (PTBA).

To launch the partnership, PATA will work with PTBA to encourage buyers, sellers, and conference delegates to connect with travel bloggers at the PATA Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart 2016 in Chiang Rai, Thailand from 17-19 February 2016.

“Destinations need to better understand that good travel bloggers help sell tourism offerings through enriching stories that encourage travel and truly connect with an audience. More importantly, these stories help foster cross-cultural understanding for the highly interconnected and interdependent travel and tourism industry,” said PATA CEO, Mario Hardy. “This partnership allows our members the opportunity for them to connect with leading industry travel bloggers at our events, particularly the Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart in Thailand and PATA Travel Mart in Indonesia.”

As part of the agreement, the two organisations will work to to share knowledge through research and publications, reciprocate in event participation and support mutual agreed advocacy positions.

PTBA President Matt Gibson, said, “The Professional Travel Bloggers Association is a non-profit organization dedicated to helping the travel industry and professional bloggers meet and work together in productive and mutually-beneficial ways that enable both parties to meet their goals. We are very excited about the opportunities this partnership will open up for us to engage in dialogue with the travel industry in the Asia Pacific region about how they can boost sales through blogging, social media, and by working with professional bloggers.”

The Professional Travel Bloggers Association is aiming to legitimise travel blogging as a business.