Colombo hosts 57th PATA AGM and Board meeting

The Pacific Asia Travel Association; The not for profit global travel industry association serving government tourist offices, airlines, hotels and other travel related companies throughout the Asia – Pacific region, last week concluded its 57th Annual General Meeting and PATA Board of Directors meetings, in Colombo from 4th to 7th April.

Sri Lanka Tourism and the PATA Sri Lanka Chapter have worked hand in glove, to make this event an opportunity to showcase destination Sri Lanka to the leaders of tourism attending the meetings in Colombo. Close door sessions attended exclusively by members of PATA and special invitees were held at the Cinnamon Grand in Colombo from April 5th and 7th.

PATA thanked and commended Sri Lanka Tourism and the PATA Sri Lanka Chapter for offering such a warm welcome to delegates and for making the most of the opportunity to showcase destination Sri Lanka to the leaders of Asia Pacific travel and tourism.

Prof. Mohan Munesinghe, Vice Chair of the Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change; the organization that shared this year’s Noble Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore, addressed the opening session titled ‘Climate Change – Obstacles and Opportunities’, while a session on ‘Human Capital Challenge – it’s time to invest’, was held as well.

PATA President and CEO Peter de Jong commended Sri Lanka Tourism for positioning itself as a world leader in responsible tourism and for responding to the universal threat of climate change with the unique Earth Lung initiative. Mr de Jong urged travel and tourism stakeholders to come to the PATA CEO Challenge 2008: Confronting Climate Change, April 29-30 in Bangkok, Thailand to share best practices and commit to positive action. Sri Lanka Tourism Chairman Renton de Alwis presented the Earth Lung initiative at the event. BAA shared its initiatives during the Boardroom Challenge on aviation.

According to Professor Mohan Munasinghe the market-based approach to capping and trading carbon emissions is currently “anarchic” and will not necessarily help the poor. “Nor will cap and trade give them the resources to adapt to climate change,” he added.“Carbon markets need the appropriate rules; a framework in which the potentially trillion-dollar industry can operate,” he told the PATA Board and Committee members.

Prof Munasinghe, described climate change as undermining sustainable development efforts to help the poorest in the world, by disproportionately and unfairly impacting those same people. There are many obvious examples of unsustainable practices that exist today, and there are many actionable things that individuals and businesses can do now to help mitigate the effects of climate change, he said. “You, as members of the travel and tourism industry, are empowered to change this,” he added. “Businesses can start today to implement the many examples of good practices that have positive impacts on the triple bottom-line: financial, natural and social.” For example, Prof Munasinghe said reforestation and energy conservation are not new concepts; rather they are “old lessons of history”. As a case study of what can be achieved, BAA Director of Strategy and Solutions Nick Barton addressed the audience of more than 130 Asia Pacific travel and tourism leaders about the dilemma his organisation finds itself in: Balancing the aviation growth objectives demanded by the UK government (“300%”) with the obligation to reduce its airports’ carbon footprints. Mr Barton said aviation was increasingly being perceived as a selfish activity in an environment where the awareness of climate change and its importance had never been higher. A poll he cited showed 97% of the British public were aware of climate change and 81% thought it was important. BAA has revised upwards its targeted carbon reductions from 15% below 1990 levels by 2010, which Mr Barton said BAA was on target to achieve, to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020. These targets he said would include the footprints of the new terminals and runways needed to meet growth targets. Mr Barton outlined several measures BAA was taking for both new and existing infrastructure. These include biomass tri-generation; use of photovoltaics and micro-renewables; gasification (deriving energy from waste); and ground coupled chiller heat pumps (GGCHP). Importantly, BAA’s corporate culture is embracing the need to mitigate. For example, some 6,000 of BAA’s staff are involved in car-pooling programmes for commuting to and from work, said Mr Barton.

Outside of the sessions, Sri Lanka Tourism hosted a welcome dinner to introduce the 127 delegates and their spouses attending the AGM to the Sri Lankan hospitality fraternity. The event was designed to entice invitees with a taste of Sri Lankan cuisine and entertainment packaging an experience of the rich cultural heritage and warmth of Sri Lankan hospitality. The “50 Years of Membership” Awards presentation was also held.

The PATA Foundation Charity Dinner was held in a grand scale at the Galle Face Hotel Grand Ballroom. This event saw the presentation of PATA Awards in five categories- Face of the Future Award -, Chapter Awards (2), Awards of Merit (2), Life Membership Award (2) and Chairman’s Award (1). The ‘Live Auction’ of travel products to raise funds for the PATA Foundation’s charity work, was an attractive feature on the agenda for the evening. In the post tsunami period, the PATA Foundation supported several school related activities in the South of Sri Lanka.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association is a global organisation with Headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand. The headquarters is home base for PATA’s Asia Division and PATA’s strategic units of Membership, Intelligence, Communication, Advocacy and Crisis Management, Networking, Experience and Outreach. PATA also maintains regional offices in Oakland, California, USA; Sydney, Australia; Frankfurt, Germany; Beijing, China and Dubai, U A E.

PATA’s contribution to the development and success of travel and tourism in both the Pacific and Asia, has made it the undisputed leader, of the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry. The story of PATA is the story of the Association’s dedicated people – its members, officers, board and staff.