Department of Tourism, Philippines hosted the highly successful PATA Youth Symposium
BANGKOK, THAILAND, 2019-May-23 — /Travel PR News/ — The PATA Youth Symposium, hosted by the Department of Tourism, Philippines, took place on the first day of the PATA Annual Summit 2019 on Thursday, May 9 at the Radisson Blu Cebu in Cebu, Philippines.
Organised by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Human Capital Development Committee under the theme ‘Progress with a Purpose’, the highly successful event welcomed over 200 participants with local and international students from 21 educational institutions hailing from 18 destinations including Australia; Austria; Canada; China; Guam, USA; India; Indonesia; Japan; Korea (ROK); Lao PDR; Macao, China; Malaysia; Maldives; Philippines; Rwanda; Singapore; Thailand, and Uzbekistan.
Opening the event on augmenting awareness on sustainable tourism and its significance in the Asia Pacific Region, the delegates were welcomed by the Department of Tourism Regional Director Shahlimar Hofer Tamano, whose keynote speech focused on the Central Visayas Region’s sustainable tourism product offerings and its relevance to the growth of tourism in the Philippines.
Following the insights from the host destination, PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy empowered the participants on their contribution to sustainable tourism and how they can impart strategic methods to solve the issues relevant to capacity management.
Strengthening the delegates’ awareness and pursuit for knowledge expansion, Dr Markus Schuckert, Chairman, Human Capital Development Committee, PATA and Associate Professor, School of Hotel & Tourism Mgmt, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, encouraged the audience to take advantage of their time during the event to meet new people from other destinations and share their stories and experiences with the diverse industry representatives in attendance.
Julieane “Aya” M. Fernandez, Founder, Project Lily Philippines, instilled a call to action into the minds of the delegates, tasking them to aim for excellence in service. With her advocacy on ending poverty, saving the environment through responsible waste management, empowering people and ending the stigma of inequality, Ms. Fernandez emphasized the need for collaboration that focuses on the processes that bridge the ideas of progress and purpose.
Maja Pak, Managing Director, Slovenia Tourism Board, provided a case study of how her destination incorporated the ideas of sustainably into their branding and the growing shift from destination marketing to management.
Dr Robin Yap, Chairman Emeritus, The Travel Corporation, Singapore, and JC Wong, Young Tourism Professional Ambassador, PATA highlighted the need for adoption of sustainable tourism practices through exposure and involvement with other industry stakeholders.
Closing the event, Carma Chan, Content Creator & Editor, PATA, promoted community-based development, highlighting the value of contribution and participatory tourism.
The event also featured an interactive roundtable discussion addressing the question, ‘Knowing that tourism and sustainability are intrinsically linked, what can academia, governments, and tourism organisations do to further empower young tourism professionals to navigate issues around environmental, cultural, and social sustainability?’.
In recent years the PATA Human Capital Development Committee has organised successful educational events at various institutions including UCSI University Sarawak Campus (April 2010), Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) (September 2010), Beijing International Studies University (April 2011), Taylor’s University, Kuala Lumpur (April 2012), Lyceum of the Philippines University, Manila (September 2012), Thammasat University, Bangkok (April 2013), Chengdu Polytechnic, Huayuan Campus, China (September 2013), Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, China, (May 2014), Royal University of Phnom Penh (September 2014), Sichuan Tourism School, Chengdu (April 2015), Christ University, Bangalore (September 2015), University of Guam, USA (May 2016), President University, BSD-Serpong (September 2016), Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (May 2017), Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) (September 2017), Gangneung-Wonju National University, Korea (ROK) (May 2018) and Langkawi, Malaysia (September 2018).
Read the seven lessons learnt from Youth Symposium at the following link: http://bit.ly/30n5OrX
About PATA
Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its more than 800 member organisations, including 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 20 international airlines and airports, 102 hospitality organisations and 70 educational institutions, as well as over a hundred young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world. The PATA network also embraces the grassroots activism the PATA Chapters and Student Chapters, who organise numerous travel industry training programmes and business development events across the world. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 35 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 22 PATA Student Chapters globally. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing and London. Visit www.PATA.org.
For further information, please email HCD@PATA.org.
Source: PATA
###