PATA’s immediate priorities were the focus of debate at yesterday’s Industry Council meeting, with several members expressing concern over the re-activation of the grassroots Chapter programme, as well as hopes of the association expanding its role in advocacy, information sharing and networking.

With PATA now trying to revive its Chapter programme, Lao National Institute of Tourism and Hospitality chief technical advisor Peter Semone said it felt like the association was “going forward to the past”, while Singapore-based World Express Group chairman Tan Chee Chye was skeptical about the cost of trying to bring it back.

The restructuring of PATA in recent times had seen a three-year Chapter Integration Plan that aimed to have all Chapter-only members upgraded to full PATA membership by 2007. With many unwilling to increase their level of commitment, this led to an exodus, causing the number of Chapters to dwindle by about half to its current 38-strong network.

Semone worried that Chapter membership would end up “dissolving” full PATA membership, with large numbers “hiding in the Chapters and being distantly involved” with PATA due to their reluctance to participate internationally.

Earlier in the meeting, other council members such as Marriott International chief operations officer, Asia Pacific, Craig Smith, had already pointed out that PATA needed to work on building a stronger membership base, with the lack of major industry players currently limiting networking opportunities.

PATA was also urged by members to step up in its lobbying of governments, removing barriers to destinations such as visas.

Industry Council chairman and Thailand-based Asian Trails Group CEO, Luzi Matzig, reiterated that PATA would take all the aforementioned into account, with key priorities being membership growth and renewal; restarting the chapter network while still encouraging some to become full members; getting relevant information to members; and lobbying.

CHINA is planning to launch a space theme park in Hainan province, as it is clear that ground-based space tourism and not space travel itself is the immediate opportunity for the industry, according to this morning’s keynote lift-off at PATA’s 60th Anniversary & Conference.

Yu Dengyun, deputy director general, Committee of Science and Technology, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, said: “I dare not forecast when the first Chinese tourist will be able to go into space. Maybe we should start thinking about ground-based space facility tourism first,” he said.

The theme park will give people the opportunity to visit space shuttle launch pads and other ground facilities, watch the launch of space aircraft, and experience what it is like to be on the moon and Mars. “The experience will be very different to watching it on television,” Yu said.

Space travel will eventually become “as common as a car drive” with advances in technology, but for now and the forseeable future, it is strictly a luxury limited to those able to afford the astronomical fees.

Conference keynote speaker Eric Anderson, chairman and co-founder of Space Adventures – which sent the first tourist into space in 2001 – said: “It has been 50 years since the first human successfully went into space orbit. Only about 500 people have visited space in this 50-year period. This is fewer than the number of billionaires in the world.”

While hoping to eventually expand space tourism to the masses, Anderson admitted that the cost of space travel had tripled from about US$20 million per person per trip 10 years ago to close to US$60 million today, not taking into account the cost of travel insurance – a couple of per cent of the princely sum.

Even the next best alternative, sub-orbital flights which only take 1/100th of the energy required to reach orbit, and give passengers the opportunity to experience floating weightless in a zero gravity environment for two-to-three minutes at a time, cost US$100,000 to US$200,000 per person per trip, according to Anderson.

Anderson said he was planning to introduce a lottery to give people who would not normally be able to afford space travel the chance to head into space. “It is a way of democratising space travel.”

Anderson said: “Ground-based space tourism is a market with big potential. The most-visited museum in the world is the Smithsonian National Air and Space museum in Washington.”

WELCOME banquets of PATA conferences in the past were events to look forward to. Usually, they were held in venues that were only possible only if real strings were pulled. Why, I remember the first PATA conference in Beijing in 1997; as one of our night-outs, we were guests of the Mayor of Beijing and were treated to a formal banquet in the Great Hall of the People, followed by a visit to Chairman Mao’s offices above the Gate of Heavenly Peace, which looked down on Tiananmen Square.

But last night’s PATA 60th Anniversary & Conference Welcome Banquet showed how times had changed. Not only was it held just in a mere hotel ballroom, one of the main acts was by a group of elderly dancing ladies whose average age must be 60 years.

Don’t get me wrong – they were adorable, fun and entertaining – but as I watched them and looked around, I wondered if the entertainment was being pitched to the average age of the PATA attendee. Or may be a literal way of celebrating PATA’s 6oth anniversary? Or may be a way to acknowledge an important travel market, ie, seniors?

The elderly dancing ladies were followed by a choir by children. I thought, aha, surely the middle segment would follow next? Alas, the only adult entertainment that ensued were grave speeches.

That’s when I decided to hit the bar. Some things do not change.

By Adam Tan

ASIAN NTO chiefs meeting at PATA say they are mulling about what to do with the Japan market, which has been in a serious decline following the tsunami.

Tourism Malaysia is expecting a 30 per cent drop this year in the Japan market, its ninth largest source last year with 415,881 visitors.

For a destination like Guam, things are worse: even after an attempt to diversify the business mix since the 90s, Japan still accounts for 74 per cent of all its international arrivals, from over 90 per cent before. Business is immediately down 15 per cent to18 per cent, said Guam Visitor Bureau (GVB) general manager Gerry Perez.

Hong Kong Tourist Board (HKTB) is expecting the market to decline by 20 per cent and is “watching the situation like a hawk”, said HKTB executive director, Anthony Lau.

PATA is projecting a 10 per cent in Japan outbound overall this year as a result of the crisis, but Asian NTO chiefs such as Tourism Malaysia’s acting director Dato Azizan Noordin said the fall-out was definitely bigger than 10 per cent for Malaysia.

“This is why it is so important that we have real, up-to-date insights into the market, so we are able to work out a plan with Japan’s outbound agents, airlines and media to stimulate the market to travel again. Now might not be the right time probably to do any hardselling, but we need to hear from the horse’s mouth, ie, from the outbound agents themselves, when will the right time be, or whether we could promote in other parts of Japan which aren’t affected by the tsunami,” said Azizan.

He said that although Tourism Malaysia could rely on its offices in Tokyo and Osaka for the sentiment on the ground, this only covered the perspective of agents it does business with. “A bigger perspective covering the Japan outbound market is needed, so we could learn where the various opportunities are, and this I feel is the priority PATA should focus on, especially when we are confronted with not just Japan, but the Middle East (crisis).”

Perez said that the quandary was whether or not to market in Japan. “Some believe that no matter how much money you pour in during this period, it’s not going to produce results due to the psychological factor. But I personally believe that to completely pull out is also not a good idea, as you want to be top-of-mind when sentiments change.”

GVB is rolling out a campaign appealing to Japanese travellers in western and northern Japan to “take two to three days off as a kind of a healing process”. It is also stepping up investment in South Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Perez said that not only was Guam seeing a decline in Japan visitors as a result of the so-called “psychological factor”, it was seeing a drop in arrivals from markets such as South Korea, which perceived Guam as equally unsafe due to it three-hour proximity to Japan.

SINGAPORE Airlines (SIA) believes that Finnair’s upcoming launch of direct Helsinki-Singapore services (TTG Asia e-Daily, March 4) at the end of next month will be beneficial in the long run.

“Singapore Airlines always welcomes competition. More supply creates more demand,” said SIA’s Helsinki-based sales representative and PATA Finland Chapter chairman, Hanna-Leena Halsas, at the sidelines of PATA 60th Anniversary & Conference in Beijing.

Finnair will be the only airline offering a daily service between Singapore and Northern Europe when it launches its new route on May 30. SIA operates services from Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Frankfurt, London, Manchester, Munich, Paris and Zurich to Singapore.

“Some point-to-point traffic may be lost, since what Finnair is offering is a non-stop direct flight between the two locations, and the shortest way from Northern Europe to Asia is via Helsinki,” said Halsas. “But the effect on our business is not as bad as it looks, since SIA has a very strong network. Our other core strengths are our young fleet and excellent service.”

According to Halsas, about 13,000 Finns visit Singapore annually. Their top two destinations in Asia-Pacific are Indonesia (about 80,000 per annum) and Thailand (about 93,000 per annum).

“They use Singapore as a stopover and transit point, not so much as a mono destination,” said Halsas. “They usually fly on to Bali and Australia, and Manado for diving.”

With there being many Finnish companies in Asia, like Nokia, Halsas believes that there is much room for growth for the Finnish market to Singapore. She said SIA currently works with travel agents in Finland to create promotions, and organises workshops to educate them on how to sell Singapore as a destination.

“We also hold roadshows with 10 to 12 sellers who are PATA members, and visit the six biggest cities, including Helsinki, Turku and Oulu,” she added.

RECENT global disasters have revived PATA’s efforts to build a crisis support system, with it considering a new Rapid Response Team that aims to improve information exchange and protect the industry’s interests.

The idea was presented yesterday at the PATA Industry Council meeting by Bert van Walbeek, chairman of the PATA Emergency Information Exchange Panel (PEIEP), an initiative he pronounced as “dead” after two-and-a-half years of trying to make it work.

Walbeek said several attempts to get PEIEP off the ground were met with poor responses, with only four to five people keen to actively participate.

Following renewed interest in such a system, the plan is to set up a volunteer team that will collaborate with professional risk assessment companies, as well as local assistance and relief organisations that have access to real-time information on the ground and existing mechanisms to react efficiently, he explained.

Walbeek said the focus was on gathering accurate data to update industry members on “what is the real story behind the news story”.

At yesterday’s press conference, PATA interim CEO, Bill Calderwood, referred to Japan’s earthquake and the floods in Queensland, saying those were examples of where “misinformation or the misinterpretation of information” had an impact on travel demand.

“We will work with the media in different ways to try and get the right information out very quickly so that we can speed up the recovery,” he added.