Write a note on Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) was formed in 1952. It soon emerged as an authority on Pacific Asia tourism and provided leadership in this regard. It has a diverse membership with representation from both public as well as the private sectors. National tourist organizations, hoteliers, travel agents, tour operators, air carriers and many others connected with travel and tourism constitute its membership.

The headquarters of PATA are in San Francisco and the day to day management is conducted by an Executive Vice President with the help of a small personal staff. PATA has four divisional offices-

• Monaco: Covering Europe,
• SingapoCovering Asia,
• Sydney: Covering the Pacific, and
• San Francisco: Covering the America.

These offices maintain a close touch with members. The Association, policy and progress is looked after by a Board of Directors. The activities of PATA cover a variety of issues. For example in collaboration with other international travel organizations and its own chapters it holds many programs world wide like-

• Tourism Research Forums,
• Heritage Conferences,
• Adventure Tourism Conferences,
• Seminar on various themes like human resource development, open sky policy etc, and
• Identifying new trends emerging within Pacific Asia Tourism, etc.