The PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association) Travel Mart 2010 will take place from September 15 to 17 at the Venetian Macao-Resort-Hotel. As Asia Pacific's foremost travel contracting and networking show, the travel mart is expected to attract a thousand participants and guests.
Following the successful PATA Annual Conference held in 2005, it is the first time for Macau to host the PATA Travel Mart. More than 300 buyers, 500 sellers and 50 media representatives from around the world will gather in Macau for the event.
PATA also cooperates with the Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) and Hong Kong Polytechnic University to organize a full-day seminar, “Human Resources Challenges in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: Promoting Industry and Academic Collaboration” at IFT on September 14. Its goal is to provide a forum for the academia and the tourism industry to exchange on issues of the supply and demand of qualified employees in the travel and tourism industry.
The PATA Travel Mart 2010 opening ceremony will be held in the morning of September 15 and the 3-day travel mart will provide a platform for 900 buyers and sellers to network and seek business opportunities. The first two days are for trade members and the organizer will invite local higher education institutes to visit the mart on the third day. In addition to workshops and case studies, tours to Macau’s world heritage will also be organized for the participants.
MGTO is sponsoring, for the 15th consecutive year, the 2010 PATA Gold Awards, where PATA will present 20 Gold Awards and four Grand Awards at the PATA Gold Awards Lunch and Award Presentation on September 17 to acknowledge the outstanding achievement of the stakeholders in various tourism industry aspects.
Founded in 1951, PATA is a non-profit membership association dedicated to building responsible development of the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry. MGTO has been a member of PATA for over half a century since 1958.
PATA has currently 800 full members and over 7,000 chapter members around the globe. PATA's membership boasts more than 100 government, state and city tourism bodies, over 50 airlines and cruise lines, and hundreds of travel industry companies.
PATA Chapter is the foundation of the Association with close to 40 chapters all over the world, of which PATA Macau Chapter was set up in 1983 and it has over 70 members at present.
There has been a close tie between Macau and PATA. Between 1980 and 2002, PATA conducted 5 task force projects to provide guidelines and recommendations for tourism development in Macau. These projects include "Macau - A study of Tourism Development" in 1980 regarding the balance between heritage preservation and tourism development; "Macau Education Task Force" in 1990 concerning the overall education and training framework to meet short and long term manpower needs; "Macau Tourism in Transition" in 1994 pointing to the development of a MICE destination; "Macau Tourism Marketing - A new Focus for the Millennium" in 1996 about the setting up of overseas representation offices; and "A study of the Future of Macau's Tourism and its International Airport in the Context of the Pearl River Delta Region" in 2002 regarding market diversification and interrelationship between the aviation network and marketing promotion.
MGTO has been actively participating in the tourism meetings and activities held by PATA and since 1996, MGTO has been supporting the PATA Gold Awards, so as to promote Macau tourism.
In 2005, the 54th PATA Annual Conference was successfully held in Macau and its MICE industry then entered a new era.
Website of PATA: www.pata.org
