Tag Archives: PATA

Asia is predicted to return to a significant level of dominance, supplying more than 64% of all IVAs into Asia Pacific in 2024, under each of the three scenarios, followed by the Americas and Europe. Overall, while the trends in these latest forecasts are positive, there are still challenges ahead, not the least of which will be containing the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19. As PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera notes, “International travel recovery to and within the Asia Pacific region is projected to return moderately over the next three years. Recovery will be uneven into the various sub-regions and destinations and will most likely still remain volatile over the next few years. Some individual destinations may see success but expedited recovery of the region requires a more collaborative approach.” 

In its 249th EC Meeting on 23rd December, 2021PATA India Chapter announced that Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, will remain as Chairman. Apart from that Jatinder Taneja, MD, Travel Spirit International was re-elected unopposed as the Vice Chairman; as well as Vikram Madhok, MD, Abercrombie & Kent as Hon. Secretary. SanJeet, Director, DDP Publications, remains Hon. Treasurer and  Runeep Sangha will continue as Executive Director, PATA India Chapter.

During an insightful webinar organised by PATA, Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University in China, said, “It looks like another tough year for inbound travel into India. But, if India can show that it is containing the spread of infection and upped its immunisation process, the numbers can improve. The outbound travel numbers from India however look more robust.”

PATA’s webinar ‘Asia Pacific Tourism Forecast’, is set to be held today at 12.00 pm. During this webinar, participants will get to meet Liz Ortiguera, the new CEO of PATA, who will share insights on the future of travel & tourism around the world, with a focus on Asia Pacific. Also, Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University, China, and a renowned tourism analyst will share indepth analysis on the forecast for Asia Pacific Tourism. Register here: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bku5hVW-TRq5f_SiqmD5IQ.

Liz Ortiguera, CEO, PATA, will share her insights on the future of travel & tourism in APAC at the PATA Tourism PowerHouse webinar on 29th July, at 12 pm. Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University, China and a renowned tourism analyst, will also share his views on outbound tourism from India at the webinar. To attend, register at https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bku5hVW-TRq5f_SiqmD5IQ

Liz Ortiguera, the CEO of PATA, has said that travel recovery is being driven by a complex range of factors, from varying market policies regarding virus control and containment to local citizens’ sentiments on vaccine take-up. “In the travel industry, a ‘duty of care’-based approach in delivering services and products will support a more sustainable recovery,” she explains.

In his farewell message, Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, said that he encourages everyone to pause and reflect on the lessons learned over the past year and be there for one another. “Now more than ever, partnering for a better tomorrow is critical. I truly wish the travel and tourism industry will experience a speedy and effective recovery so that we can all travel again soon, see our family, our friends and enjoy discovering new places and cultures.” He will be succeeded by Liz Ortiguera.

Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, said that there is a need for health passports, across the world, and that vaccination is not the only solution for travel recovery. “Health passports are not only about vaccination. Vaccination is not the only solution for travel recovery. Testing is also here to stay. It’s the combination of both—having the vaccine, having a way or mechanism to be able to track who is being vaccinated, when have you been vaccinated, what type of vaccine you’ve received etc. and the same things with testing. This is where the health pass is becoming critical for trans-border travel in the future. It’s important that moving forward, we have one standard protocols across the world for accepting testing.”

Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, has said that it is the importance of resilience that will be the biggest take away from 2020.  “We have always been told in the past to have a financial reserve personally as well as for the business, and till 10 years ago people said that thus one needs to save as reserve for 3 months, which later became 6 months, and then one year. However, in the current situation, one probably needs several years of reserve, to be able to sustain this type of crisis we are facing today. At PATA, we are very fortunate that we built a very strong reserve for the last couple of years, which allows us to sustain this crisis and for the foreseeable future. 2020 highlighted which I already knew and highlighted the importance of saving, to prepare us to be more resilient in the future because sadly this is not the only crisis we will be facing in years to come, but certainly it is the largest I have ever experienced in my life so far,” he added.

The first Virtual PATA Travel Mart (PTM) 2020 opened to a massive number of attendees. Addressing them through a virtual message, Mario Hardy, CEO, PATA, said, “Virtual PTM is the perfect place to begin, with Asia Pacific predicted to be the leading force of global tourism recovery from COVID-19, as both inbound destinations as well as robust source markets. As PATA acts as a catalyst for the responsible tourism development to, from and within the Asia Pacific region, we understand that both the public and private sectors must work together in order to build a more resilient, responsible and sustainable global travel and tourism industry, and hopefully Virtual PTM provides such a platform for the industry. In addition, there are buyer-seller meetings where I encourage delegates to take part in various networking opportunities. One can gain further insights into the travel and tourism industry during the PTM forums, quick-fire presentations and group chats. At the 2020 PATA Gold Awards Presentation, we will celebrate, recognise and support outstanding achievements in Asia Pacific travel and tourism.”