PATA

(Dive Travel Business News - February 4, 2010) -- The Pacific Region is regaining some lost ground as travel demand continued to pick up in the last few months of 2009. Visitor Arrivals were up according to preliminary figures from the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) that showed International  visitors to the Asia Pacific region grew by 3% year-on-year in November 2009.

All the sub-regions, with the exception of the Americas, recorded growth in arrivals for the month. Southeast Asia led the Asia Pacific region’s recovery with a 15 percent increase in arrivals:  Malaysia grew 11%; Singapore was up 8%; Thailand was boosted by 26%; and Vietnam was up 37%.

Growth in international arrivals to Northeast Asia (China, Taipe, Korea, Hong Kong, Macau and Japan), averaged 2% for the month of November.  

In South Asia, overall growth was up 2% for the month of November with boosts in arrivals to the Maldives (up 7%), Nepal (up 8%) and Sri Lanka (up 20%) while India fell by 1 %. read more »

(January 11, 2008 - PATA) --The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) signed a new agreement with EC3 Global, managers of the Green Globe brand, to help significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its landmark new event, the “PATA CEO Challenge: Confronting Climate Change.” Green Globe is the leading international environmental benchmarking and certification program for the travel and tourism industry.

“It is critical that PATA leads by example and does everything possible to minimize the carbon emissions produced by this important and historic event to confront climate change,” said PATA President & CEO, Peter de Jong. On April 29-30 travel and tourism industry leaders will gather in Bangkok for the inaugural PATA CEO Challenge. It will be the first time that decision-makers from all sectors of Asia Pacific travel and tourism meet to discuss and agree to practical solutions to confront climate change. read more »

(Dive Travel Business News - March 27, 2008) -- Global travel industry leaders are saying it’s time for travel businesses to adopt new attitudes towards the environment and social justice. That is the view being expressed by many of the business leaders attending the PATA CEO Challenge, Confronting Climate Change, organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association in Bangkok, April 29-30.

“In the face of decision paralysis on the environment that has occurred in some destinations, businesses are now driving the agenda for a reduction in carbon emissions,” said Anna Pollock, CEO of the UK-based DestiCorp. Some 68 percent of CEOs interviewed by the IBM Institute of Business Value said they were focusing on corporate social responsibility to create new revenue streams. Over half believe that their CSR activities are giving them a competitive advantage.

Ahead of the event, PATA is hosting blog discussions on the travel industry’s response to climate change at ceochallenge.pata.org/blog/

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(May 2, 2008 - Modern Agent) -- Edwin Fuller, president and managing director of Marriott Lodging International said to delegates at the PATA CEO Challenge 2008: Confronting Climate Change in Bangkok, “In Europe, consumers say: ‘We will not buy your hotel unless you have an environmental program we can see.’”

Unsurprisingly, those environmental programs are now springing up in the private sector, despite a lack of incentives or environmental policy initiatives at government level in Asia. In the private sector, for example, Six Senses Resorts & Spas now invests 0.5 percent of gross income from each hotel back into a sustainable, environmental and responsible fund (SERF). This averages out at $100,000 per hotel per year across the group. Six Senses’ carbon offset program now replaces all carbon emissions from guests’ flights as well as emissions from hotel operations. The company offsets emissions from coal fired power plants in South India by replacing them with wind turbines. read more »