PATA gears up for Adventure Travel Mart
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The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is preparing to launch its Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart (AT&RTCM). The event is scheduled to take place at the Fulbari Resort and Spa, in the Nepalese city of Pokhara from 7-11 February 2011.
Under the theme ‘Social Give Back: Doing Well by Doing Good’, the four-day event will bring together people involved in adventure travel and responsible tourism to discuss creating new opportunities for promoting environmental protection and social sustainability within the industry. Delegates will be able to attend interactive breakout sessions on topics such as baby boomers, indigenous tourism and youth travel.
David Jones, former Director General, WYSE Travel Confederation, said; “Youth travel makes a unique contribution to our shared objective of promoting sustainability and responsible travel. Young people travel to explore, to engage, and to learn. They ‘travel with purpose’ and a respect for the cultures and environments they visit. Aware, socially concerned and linked to vast social networks, they seek sustainable travel experiences and are early adopters of responsible travel habits. Young travellers are the best ambassadors for tourism destinations and set the travel trends that will define the future shape of our industry. At the AT&RTC Youth Travel session, a panel of leading professionals will explore youth market travel trends and how to create sustainable programmes of excellence to meet the growing demand for new diverse youth travel experiences.”
Dr Siddhartha Bajra Bajracharya, Executive Officer of the National Trust for Nature Conservation and a speaker at the interactive breakout session on indigenous tourism, added; “Sustainability in tourism and sustainability of its product is crucial. It can be achieved through community-based tourism, which is one of the best available alternatives for sustainable tourism development. Delegates must visit some key destinations to see community-based tourism, for instance, Ghandruk in the Annapurna Conservation Area.”
Dr Zhang Guangrui, Director and Professor at the Tourism Research Centre, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, who will participate in the baby boomers session, commented; “Nowadays, tourism development is important economically to all countries in the world, and the developing countries in particular. However, to keep tourism development sustainable is more important and crucial for the long run. All stakeholders of tourism, government/private sector and tourists, should realise and bear their responsibility to fulfil the common goal of healthy development. I am looking forward to hear the stories of sustainable tourism development from the participants, and know more about our colleagues’ efforts in nicely making tourism link culture and environment in their practices.”
The event is hosted by Nepal Tourism Board with support from the PATA Nepal Chapter and endorsed by Adventure Travel Trade Association (ATTA), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Sustainable Travel International. Official airlines are Nepal Airlines and Buddha Air.
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