More than 175 Companies and Advisors in Thailand and Myanmar Trained
BANGKOK, 2014-7-17 — /Travel PR News/ — The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), The Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI), and Travelife have kicked off their co-operation with a series of training courses for tour operators and advisors. The trainings took place following the signing of the three-party Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between CBI, PATA and Travelife on May 18, 2014 in Zhuhai, China at the PATA Annual General Meeting.
At the PATA headquarters in Bangkok, Travelife trained 15 regional tour operators, sustainability advisors, and auditors. These advisors and auditors will instruct PATA members who wish to work towards sustainability. In separate two-day training programmes, more than 20 Asian tour operators learned how to integrate sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles as part of their normal businesses practices. Furthermore, a regional working group will be formed in order to jointly develop Asia-specific implementation tools and suppliers standards.
In Yangon, more than 80 Myanmar travel companies, 60 hotels, and 18 PATA members joined three 2-day training courses organized in co-operation with the Union of Myanmar Travel Association (UMTA) and the Myanmar Hoteliers Association. As part of its Tourism Asia programme (2014-2017) CBI will work closely with local and national associations in Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Mongolia to promote sustainability among their members.
CBI, an agency of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, encourages imports from developing countries by enhancing the capacity of individual companies and business support organisations. In the frame of its Tourism Asia programme, supporting the sustainable growth of tourism is a key CBI objective. CBI will facilitate PATA in its sustainability objectives through training and capacity building.
Ester Kruk, CBI Senior Programme Manager Asia, said, “Compliance with international CSR standards will increasingly become a condition of international business engagement. I am delighted to see such strong interest from Asian companies.”
PATA wishes to support its members in implementing social and environmental responsible business practices. The Association unites more than 700 leading travel companies in the Asia Pacific region and has chapters in 41 Asia Pacific destinations and key source markets.
PATA CEO Martin Craigs, said, “PATA forecasts that international visitor arrivals into Asia* will grow at 6.3% per year between 2013 and 2018 to exceed the 516 million mark by 2018. With Travelife internal procedures in place, tour operators and travel agents will be able to combine growth with sustainable, measurable practices. Through the strong commitment and co-operation between leading PATA members we will be able to set an example for the industry at large.”
Travelife is a comprehensive programme initiated by European travel associations to help travel companies and their suppliers achieve sustainability through training, management, reporting and external recognition and certification.
Naut Kusters, Manager Travelife for Tour operators, said, “The commitment of PATA is a historic step towards a sustainable travel industry. It will spread global CSR and sustainability standards and best practices amongst Asian tour operators. It will provide direction to committed tour operators and recognition for front runners.”
Note: * Asia is defined as including destinations in Northeast, South and Southeast Asia
-ENDS-
For more information about the programme, contact:
PATA
Chi Lo, PATA sustainability and social responsibility specialist
Chi@pata.org
CBI, The Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries
Ester Kruk, Senior Programme Manager Asia
ekruk@cbi.eu
Travelife for Tour operators and Travel agents
Naut Kusters, Manager Travelife for tour operators and travel agents
n.kusters@travelife.info
About PATA
Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for profit association that is internationally acclaimed for acting 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 member organisations, comprising 90 government, state and city tourism bodies, nearly 30 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 57 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 41 local PATA chapters worldwide. The chapters organise travel industry training and business development events. Their grassroots activism underpins PATA’s membership of the Global Travel Association Coalition (GTAC), which includes ACI, CLIA, IATA, ICAO, WEF, UNWTO and the WTTC. ThePATAmPOWER 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, Sydney, Dubai, London and New York. www.PATA.org
About CBI
The Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI) aims to promote exports from developing countries in order to support a sustainable growth of these developing countries. CBI focuses on several sectors including tourism and works directly with local enterprises and business support organizations. The CBI Tourism Asia program 2014-2017 has a focus on 6 Asian countries (Bhutan, Nepal, Mongolia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Myanmar) and on promoting sustainability within the Asian tourism sector (with a focus on tour operators and market access support). www.cbi.eu
About Travelife for tour operators
Travelife for Tour operators was developed in partnership with the European and global associations of tour operators and provides training, tools, and instruments to support tour operators and travel agencies in the integration of sustainability in their company operations. The training and online tools are suitable for tour operators and travel agencies of any size and cover all management aspects of the travel company business including office operations, the supply chain, destinations and consumers. The Travelife standard for Tour operators and Travel agencies is based upon the full Corporate Social Responsibility themes, including labour conditions, human rights, environment, biodiversity and fair business practices. The management requirements are compatible with ISO 14001 and the standard has been recognised as in compliance with the UN supported Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. Travelife is supported by more than 20 national and international travel associations to further its implementation among members. www.travelife.info
PATA, The Netherlands Centre for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries and Travelife launched series of training courses for tour operators and advisors across Asia