Wild Asia values the importance of collaboration and is delighted to have signed an MOU with PATA to enhance the promotion of sustainable tourism across Asia and the Pacific.
Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for profit association that is internationally acclaimed for acting 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, comprising 90 government, state and city tourism bodies, nearly 30 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 57 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 43 local PATA chapters worldwide. The chapters organise travel industry training and business development events. Their grassroots activism underpins PATA’s membership of the Global Travel Association Coalition (GTAC), which includes ACI, CLIA, IATA, ICAO, WEF, UNWTO, and the WTTC. 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, Sydney, Dubai, London and New York. PATA has been a champion of environmental and cultural heritage since its inception, and has measures taken to demonstrate PATA’s stance on social responsibility, including the 1970 conference on Tourism and Heritage Conservation, and the adoption of the APEC/PATA Code for Sustainable Tourism in 2001, only a few internal measures have been taken to actualize social responsibility efforts. These include the establishment of PATA Foundation, and of the PATA Gold Awards – of note is an award category of environment, which honours the “best” practices upheld by individuals or organizations in protection and conservation of the environment, and the establishment of the Sustainability and Social Responsibility (SSR) Committee and PATA Task Forces.
Today, PATA continues to build its partnerships with sustainability-minded organizations, which provide member benefits such as tools to become more sustainable, as well as educational sessions in the form of webinars. Additionally, PATA is striving to formalize ties with various branches of the UN, including UNWTO, ILO, UNEP, and UNESCO, and UNISDR, which will give the organization further support in realizing its potential and mission to develop a sustainable and responsible visitor economy in the Asia Pacific region.
In alignment with PATA’s 3 pillars – insightful research, aligned advocacy, and innovative events, PATA’s sustainability strategy objectives are to:
- Generate tools that will allow sharing of knowledge on good sustainability practices
- Facilitate knowledge sharing and generate awareness on sustainability issues
- Advocate for policies related to sustainable development of the visitor economy
- Advocate for responsible organizational practices
- Utilize PATA’s network to disseminate key related messages, disseminate awareness and knowledge on sustainability and social responsibility to develop a sustainable and responsible visitor economy
- Incorporation of sustainability and social responsibility into all facets of PATA’s strategy and activities