PATA chooses Albay for travel mart venue

MANILA, Philippines - The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has chosen Albay as the venue of its Adventure Travel and Responsible Tourism Conference and Mart in the Philippines.

The province bested other strong and giant bidders for the organization’s November 2015 event.     

PATA is a premier organization of travel and tourism players in the Asia Pacific region and a leading authority on the industry for over 60 years. It is a partner of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

Its Travel Mart event this year is set for Sept. 17-19 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Last year, its roadshow in Chengdu, China attracted 77 media, 550 seller and 473 buyer delegates, and registered over 10,000 business appointments in just two days.

PATA executive director Martin Craigs, in his letter to Albay Gov. Joey Salceda, said their members believe Legazpi “has much to offer in terms of adventure and would be a perfect destination for a conference and promotion support for Emerging Destinations.”  

The 2015 PATA event features a day-long conference and field trips to various tourism sites in Legazpi City and neighboring areas, including  the world famous Cagsawa Ruins in Daraga town, which now awaits UNESCO’s declaration as a World Heritage Site. 

The PATA Travel Mart is a premier travel trade show in the Asia Pacific region, offering a dynamic program and remarkable platform to showcase travel products and services and bringing together in one market place hundreds of international buyers and sellers in the industry.

Salceda said the 2015 PATA event in Albay would further boost the province’s reputation as a leading travel and tourism growth area in the country.

The Department of Tourism has declared Albay as the Philippines’ fastest growing tourist destination. It has posted a sustained tourism growth, leaping  47 percent in 2012, and 66 percent in 2013. After a flat first quarter performance, it registered another 52 percent growth in the second quarter of  this year.

Albay’s tourism has grown from 8,700 foreign tourists in 2007 to 339,000 in 2013. The province has been the venue of many international conferences this  year, among them the 26th Joint meeting of the UNWTO Commission for East Asia and the Pacific and its Commission for South Asia, and the UNWTO-ASEAN International Conference on Tourism and Climate Change last May.