PATA was pioneered by visionaries around the Pacific in 1951. It moved its operating HQ to Bangkok in 1998. PATA has taken the lead in many travel and tourism issues, not least sustainable tourism, as established at the PATA Annual General Meeting in Malaysia in 1972. Today, PATA is at the epicentre of the fastest-growing tourism region in the world. We take our responsibility to protect the interests of all stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry, very seriously. As a non-profit independent membership association, we take hard, outspoken stances against policies, regulations,and practices that threaten the viability of the “Complete Visitor Economy“ or CVE to, from and within Asia/Pacific.

1. PATA NEXT GENERATION
ACTIVISM AND ADVOCACY IN ACTION
PATA was pioneered by visionaries around the Pacific in 1951. It moved its operating HQ to Bangkok in 1998.
PATA has taken the lead in many travel and tourism issues, not least sustainable tourism, as established at the PATA
Annual General Meeting in Malaysia in 1972.
Today, PATA is at the epicentre of the fastest-growing tourism region in the world. We take our responsibility to protect
the interests of all stakeholders in the travel and tourism industry, very seriously.
As a non-profit independent membership association, we take hard, outspoken stances against policies, regulations,
and practices that threaten the viability of the“Complete Visitor Economy“ or CVE to, from and within Asia/Pacific.
Two of our more recent, aligned advocacy campaigns have questioned the logic of European travel taxation in the
form of the UK’s APD tax and the EU’s ETS tax. As you may know EU-ETS has been postponed and UK APD is now
increasingly described as a“self harming“ tax even by UK MP’s.
2-Indian Tourism Minister Shri Subodh
Kant Sahai engages with PATA Chairman
and Director of MGTO João Manuel
Costa Antunes during his visit to New
Delhi, India, August 28, 2012. High level
advocacy issues were also raised with the
Minister of Aviation.
4-PATA Supports Historic World
Economic Forum, May 30 – June 1,
2012, Bangkok, Thailand A highlight at
the World Economic Forum on East Asia
2012 was the first trip abroad and public
speech of The Lady, Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, who spoke eloquently about the
importance of travel and tourism as a fast
track job creating mechanism. PATA CEO
Martin Craigs was pleased to present
a bouquet on behalf of PATA members
and had the pleasure of leading a
delegation to Myanmar in July for follow
up discussions.
3-Lord Stephen Green, UK Minister of
Trade UK Minister of State for Trade and
Investment, welcomed PATA CEO Martin
Craigs for a 45-minute briefing on travel
tax related obstacles to tourism and
trade, at the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office in London, July 9, 2012. PATA
policy paper on the pernicious effects of
UK - Air Passport Duty APD were tabled
in London and with APEC Tourism
Minister, at their biannual conference in
Khabarovsk Russia in 24th-26th July.
Hard-hitting Advocacy from PATA CEO Martin Craigs at
High Level Summits and in leading Global Media in 2012
Contact your PATA representatives to discuss local advocacy issues and topics.
On EU ETS/UK APD
(Live Interview)
December 22, 2011 – Beijing, China
EU-ETS is controversial for very understandable reasons.
The EU is trying to establish itself as a self elected global
tax collector. EU-ETS is an extra-territorial tax on all air
travellers into and out of the EU.”
(Direct public question to EU Commissioner)
February 13, 2012 - Singapore
“Commissioner Kallas should be applauded for making
the long journey to Singapore to directly understand the
regions discontent with the EU ETS. Given his background,
does he relate to the catchphrase‘no taxation without
representation’?”
(Statement to APAC tourism leaders at conference)
February 28, 2012 - Manila, Philippines
“As feared the EU-ETS has created a very unfortunate
backlash – the recent“Coalition of the Unwilling”meeting
in Moscow involving 26 nations demonstrates what PATA
and other trade organisations have been warning the EU
about of for over a year.”
March 21, 2012, ITB, Berlin
ATAG issued, WTTC supported press release: Sustainable
Growth of Asia-Pacific Economies Through Air Travel
“In Europe attempts are being made to restrain air travel.
If they succeed, even a single percentage point reduction
in demand to 2030 on Euro - Asia trafffic would lead to 6.5
million fewer tourism related jobs being created in Asia
Pacific. That is an impact worth getting exercised about.”
(Statement to conference)
May 30 – June 1, 2012 – Bangkok, Thailand
“We are witnessing a new world order. Asia Tourist Ministers
should be leaders not followers on the issue of travel tax.”
11th June 2012, Live T.V. interview in Beijing
Airline chiefs gathered in Beijing this week for the IATA AGM
are asking a basic question why tax and haress the most
enabling, job creating industry in the world so much. UK
APD tax alone will extract more cash (US$3billion) than the
combined projected annual profits of all 230 IATA airlines.
Does that sound reasonable?
(Invited to comment at media briefing)
January 15, 2012 - Manado, Indonesia
“Can the Ministers agree when the EU visits Jakarta to
request it becomes a dialogue partner on trade in ASEAN,
they are asked to explain if the EU ETS is the work of a
friend or foe.”
Chris Flynn
Regional Director
Pacific
chris@PATA.org
Ivy Chee
Regional Director
East Asia
ivy@PATA.org
Kate Chang
Regional Director
Greater China
kate@PATA.org
Melissa Burckhardt
Manager
Advocacy and Organisation
melissa@PATA.org
Tangmo
Assistant
Membership Fulfillment
pheereeya@PATA.org
Commentary on IATA’s 56th
World Air Transport Statistics digest
“An aligned advocacy campaign needs to be fought on many
fronts, including a holding action on the UK APD tax. Other
governments need to understand the long term pernicious
effects of APD and not to follow its example. The UK APD
is more about managing the condition and restricting the
spread. Aligned advocacy is therefore essential. PATA is
looking forward to continuing the fight with other travel
industry association colleagues.
1-New Zealand, Prime Minister and Tourism Minister, John Key welcomed a PATA delegation to his office in
Wellington on 29th October. With UK-NZ International Visitor Arrivals down 5% PM Key has lobbyed current
and past British PM’s about APD. Now is the time for ASEAN Minister to speak out loud and clear on this.

2. ADVOCACY AMPLIFICATION BY PATA PATA ALIGNED ADVOCACY
Time Magazine: Asia and US circulation; reached over 23+ million readers in Dec 2011.
Objective: Inform the travelling public that Thailand is open for business and alert on
WTTC/PATA Crisis Recovery Forum in Sendai, Japan, April 2012.
Thailand and the Mekong region, and the
earthquake and the tsunami in Japan – cannot
be avoided, their consequences on tourism can
be mitigated.
The new PATA Rapid Recovery Taskforce sprung
into action to spread the word that Thailand
remains open for tourism. And we will be staging
the WTTC/PATA Crisis Recovery Forum in Sendai,
Japan, April 16-17 to sound the “all clear” there.
Just another way that PATA clearly builds
PATA Thai Flood Update Banner on
CNN.com - 30 second spot shown 168 times
Nov/Dec 2011
“Travel and tourism is exemplary in its ability to bring people together to
share, learn, and grow. This human connectivity applies to both tourists and
travel industry stakeholders. PATA provides a valuable platform for gaining
access to essential intelligence, and networks, in the world’s most dynamic
region of tourism sector growth.”
Anita Mendiratta, Managing Director,
Cachet Consulting
Travel and Tourism World Leaders in Alignment with PATA
UNWTO Secretary General Taleb Rifai hosted PATA at the 24th Joint Meeting of the
UNWTO Commission for South Asia and the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the
Pacific, May 3-5, 2012, Chiang Mai, Thailand. Rifai also sent a video message for the
2012 PATA Annual Conference, April 21-22, 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The UNWTO
Secretary General was PATA’s guest of honour at the House of Commons dinner in
London on the opening night of WTM on 5th November, 2012.
Taleb was the keynote speaker at the PATA Annual Summit in Bangkok on 26th April
2013.
WTTC President & CEO David Scowsill hosted PATA at the WTTC Global Summit held
in Tokyo and Sendai, April 16-19, 2012. Scowsill also participated as a speaker at the
2012 PATA Annual Conference, April 21-22, 2012, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The WTTC
team has very effectively led the new Global Travel Coalition which includes ACI,
ASTA, IATA, UNWTO, USTA, WEF, WTTC, and PATA. Mr Scowsill was also be a guest of
PATA’s on the 5th November.
David participated at ATF in Vientiane in alignment with PATA and held a joint media
briefing in PATA’s new Engagement Hub in Bangkok on 25th January 2013.
IATA CEO and Director General Tony Tyler hosted PATA at the IATA AGM, June 10-12,
2012, Beijing, China. IATA also hosted PATA at the biannual IATA Aviation Leader-
ship Forum held in Singapore in February, and visited Bangkok the same month for
aligned advocacy discussions. Mr Tyler and his IATA delegation visited the President
of the Philippines, Benigno Aquino on the same day as the PATA Executive Board on
27th September, World Tourism Day. Mr. Tyler was represented at the PATA Aligned
Advocacy Dinner by Mr. Jeff Poole, Director, Government and Industry Affairs and Mr.
Philippe Forest, UK Country Manager.
Former Mexican Tourism Minister Gloria Guevara pioneered getting tourism
on to the G20 agenda for the first time. She has shared the stage in 2012 with
PATA at WTTC, WEF and APEC events in Japan, Thailand and Russia. Gloria was
a most welcome and appropriate speaker at PATA’s Gala Dinner at the House
of Commons in London on 5th November, 2012 along with Conservative MP
Priti Patel who is vigorously challenging her own party over the logic of APD,
which MP Patel describes as“an exercise in self harming”.
Gloria was a keynote speaker for 2013 PATA Annual Summit in Bangkok 26
April 2013