MEXICO TO HOST PATA AMERICAS TRAVEL MART

Top travel planners from the Pacific Asia region will meet with suppliers from the Americas at the 16th Pacific Asia Travel Association Americas Travel Mart (PATM) at the Presidente Inter-Continental Hotel, Mexico City, September 25-28, 2001. This will mark the first time that Mexico has hosted the event, which was previously called PATA-VUSAMART.

With its broad economic recovery, Pacific Asia is once again generating strong visitor traffic to the Americas. The United States received 32.7 percent more visitors from Korea (ROK) and 30.5 percent more from China (PRC) in 2000. In the same year Canada received 35.5 percent more from Korea (ROK) and 23.5 percent more from China (PRC). In 1999 Japanese visitor numbers to Mexico increased 18.1 percent.

The event has been rebranded as the PATA Americas Travel Mart, to focus purely on selling Canada, the United States and Mexico to Pacific Asia," said Ms. Rattana Sithi-Amnuai, PATA's Assistant Director-Events. "This year's event is also special because Mexico City will be the first destination to host the venue outside of the United States."

Over the three-day event, travel planners and suppliers will have pre-scheduled appointments on a "perfect match" basis based on requests and company profiles submitted to PATA prior to the event. Additional on-site appointments will be scheduled in accordance with travel planners' requests during a "one-to-one" session at the start of the event.

At PATM suppliers do not bring display materials to decorate booths. This allows them to focus on their primary objective of negotiating and contracting business. Meetings take place in private, office-style booths of the travel planners.

During PATM an educational programme also allows lecturers to present the latest travel trends from Pacific Asia source markets. All delegates will also be invited to join post-event tours to experience the sights and sounds of Mexico -- a vibrant, historical country of great contrasts.

Registration for travel planners is US$350 per person for PATA members, US$460 for non-members and US$120 for spouses. Supplier registration fees for primary delegates are US$1,350 per person for PATA members, US$595 for additional delegates, US$1,780 for non-members and US$1,130 for additional delegates. A 10 percent discount will be offered for registrations received before July 1, 2001 and paid by MasterCard. An additional late fee of US$50 will be charged for registrations received after July 1, 2001.