For those of you who are unfamiliar with PATA, we are a not-for-profit membership association founded in 1951 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 member organisations, which includes government, state and city tourism bodies; international airlines and airports; hospitality organisations, and educational institutions, as well as thousands of young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world.

The PATA network also embraces the grassroots activism of 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 32 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 28 PATA Student Chapters globally.

This year we are delighted to be working with the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry & Performing Arts of Sarawak, the Sarawak Tourism Board, and the Sarawak Convention Bureau to organise this event and we are honoured to be here to support them in the responsible development of the travel and tourism industry in Sarawak, Malaysia.

Which is what brings us here for the PATA Destination Experience Forum and Mart 2023., under the theme ““Sustainability in Action”.

The event gathers the top minds in destination travel for inspiring and insightful discussions on some of the major issues in marketing and managing tourism growth to discuss new opportunities to promote sustainability within the industry.

Alongside the conference and B2B adventure travel trade show over the next two days, yesterday’s technical tour provided a culturally immersive experience that allowed the delegates the opportunity to explore the various attractions and offerings of Sarawak.

I am proud to note that we have brought together 14 dynamic speakers from such organisations as the World Tourism Organisation, the Global Sustainable Tourism Council, the Asian Ecotourism Network, the Adventure Travel Trade Association, the Maldives Marketing & Public Relations Corporation, Intrepid Travel, Expedia Group Media Solutions and Sojern, as well as Audra Morrice, Masterchef Asia/and Singapore Host & Judge, to name a few.

Through this event, we hope to provide our delegates with an engaging and insightful programme that will touch on such topics as “Sustainability in Action”, “Climate Action Strategies for Destinations & Operators”, “Recalculating the Measurements of Success”, “Tourism’s Role for Development”, “The Power of Gastronomy Tourism for Destinations”, “Setting Your Sustainability Goals and Executing them”, “Leveraging New Trends in Sustainable Forms of Tourism” and “Using Digital Marketing to Drive Sustainability”.

Everyone at PATA hopes that by bringing together such a dynamic group of speakers, we can highlight the need to discuss, analyse and share various ideas with both the public and private sector to plan, build and promote a sustainable tourism industry.

I would like to once again thank our hosts not only for their help and support for this event but their commitment to the promotion of a responsible travel and tourism industry.

With their support and the support of our sponsors and supporters, we have brought together 272 delegates from 28 destinations to Sarawak for this event, with delegates having travelled from all corners of the world, including Australia, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong SAR, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea (ROK), Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and USA.

As travel and tourism becomes a greater contributor to the economic well-being of each destination, plans for the responsible development and sustaining those elements generating growth must be taken into consideration. It is through these partnerships with the public and private sector that help build and promote a sustainable tourism industry.