Suva, Fiji Islands, April 24, 2023 / TRAVELINDEX / The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO), to promote and strengthen shared interests between the two organisations in the areas of market access, innovative events, membership and communications to name a few.
PATA Chair Peter Semone expressed his delight about this partnership between the two organisations and highlighted that PATA is thrilled to partner with SPTO in implementing these exciting development opportunities to encourage advocacy marketing and communication, insightful market research, and innovative events for its member organisations.
“PATA is looking forward to further connecting with SPTO on these areas of cooperation for travel and tourism within the Asia Pacific region. This connection will provide more opportunities to host international events, share market insights and enable us to promote the Pacific region to a globally connected audience. Keeping the P in PATA is imperative to us,” Mr Semone said.
In acknowledging the importance of the MoU, SPTO CEO Christopher Cocker highlighted the potential to establish important public-private partnerships, to strengthen the development of the travel and tourism industry in Asia and the Pacific.
“We welcome this partnership with PATA as it aligns with the innovative partnerships component of SPTO’S Strategic Plan 2020-2024. Between our two organisations, there is a wealth of diverse membership and wider stakeholders. We recognize this partnership as an opportunity to bring our stakeholders and resources together to revitalize our progress towards the sustainable growth of travel and tourism in Asia and the Pacific”, he said.
About PATA
Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, which includes government, state and city tourism bodies; international airlines and airports; hospitality organisations, and educational institutions, as well as thousands of young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world. The PATA network also embraces the grassroots activism of the PATA Chapters and Student Chapters, who organise numerous travel industry training programmes and business development events across the world. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 32 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 28 PATA Student Chapters globally. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing and London.
About SPTO
Established in 1983 as the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) is the mandated organisation representing Tourism in the region. Its 21 Government members are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Rapa Nui, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu Wallis and Futuna, and the People’s Republic of China. In addition to government members, the Pacific Tourism Organisation also enlists a private sector membership base.