Thailand has been selected as the host country of the first Asia Pacific travel and tourism leadership summit to be organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) in April 2008, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Governor, Mrs Phornsiri Manoharn, has announced.

The decision to host the first PATA summit in Bangkok was made by the PATA Board of Directors Meeting & Annual General Meeting in Vancouver, Canada, April 21-22, 2007.

According to a PATA spokesperson, the summit will focus on high level strategic business issues with cross-sectoral relevance, impacting the Asia Pacific travel and tourism industry in the next twelve months.

Designed to replace its annual conferences, PATA will seek to attract organizations in the hotel, financial investment and aviation sectors to structure a focused, quality content programme that attracts CEO-level participation from the travel and tourism sector and allied industries.

“When compared to other global travel industry events, PATA’s unique connectivity across private and public sectors will set it apart,” PATA indicated. About 500 delegates are being targetted for the two-day event.

Mrs Phornsiri said the selection of Bangkok as the venue for the inaugural PATA Summit “reflects a tremendous vote of confidence in Thailand as a popular and safe travel destination.”

She said Thailand is the perfect place to launch this summit. “By 2008, we expect to welcome more than 15 million visitors. Our growing linkages with the Greater Mekong Subregion, India, China and the entire ASEAN region will pave the way for considerable future growth.

“At the same time, growth in visitor arrivals is being accompanied by significant challenges due to the various social, environmental, cultural and geopolitical changes taking place worldwide. All these issues are expected to figure prominently on the summit agenda,” she said.

Founded in Honolulu, Hawaii in 1951, PATA is a grouping of over 800 travel and tourism-related organizations, including nearly 100 government, state and city tourism bodies, more than 55 airlines and cruise lines, and hundreds of travel industry companies.

In a related development, PATA has appointed Mrs Phornsiri to Chair its Government Categories of membership for 2007-8.

The Chairman of Government Categories automatically assumes responsibilities as a PATA Executive Committee member and will participate in the two key PATA conferences – during the PATA Travel Mart and during the PATA Board of Directors Meeting scheduled for March/April 2008.

Mrs Phornsiri has served on the PATA Board of Directors on two previous occasions: April 2003 – April 2005 in her capacity as TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing and April 2005 – April 2007 in her capacity as TAT Deputy Governor for International Marketing, Deputy Governor for Domestic Marketing and TAT Governor, and is a current Board member for 2007 – 2009.