Finding the "P" in PATA [1]
Friday, August 30, 2002 - 10:00. Updated on Wednesday, February 10, 2016 - 17:49.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 17, no. 2, August 2002.
Peter Semone, the Vice President of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), wants tourist operators in the Pacific islands to revitalise their interest in the organisation.
Peter told a gathering of Tongan tourist operators at the Euro Asia Restaurant on July 19 that the main purpose for his swift visit through the region was to find the missing “P” in PATA. He said that during the past few years the association had been acting like ATA rather than PATA, and the Asian region has featured more prominently in its activities.
Peter said that the alignment of PATA’s interest toward Asia was due partly to the shifting of PATA’s headquarters from San Francisco to Bangkok five years ago. After the move, interest in PATA from the Pacific took a dive, attendance from the Pacific to PATA conferences dropped and so had Pacific memberships. There were only three tourist operators in Tonga that were members of PATA.
Peter said that by April 2003 they would launch new PATA membership categories, which they hoped would attract more members from the Pacific Islands.
The decision by PATA to revitalise its link with the Pacific followed the recent closure of its regional office in Sydney.
Peter said that it now seemed sensible “to have a PATA person right in the Pacific Islands, and I am thinking hard.” Already there had been a number of offers from the Pacific islands to host a PATA office in the islands.