PATA talks

PATA talks

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) will organize
separate meetings with its senior members, youth leaders and
senior journalists to seek input for the group's development to
adjust itself with rapid changes in the world.

PATA's chairman, Joop Ave (right), who is also Indonesia's
Minister of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, told reporters
prior to a meeting of PATA's senior members here yesterday that
gathering input from the three sources are important for PATA to
get fresh ideas.

The senior members attending yesterday's meeting included four
former chairmen of PATA -- (from left to right) Tungku Iskandar
from Malaysia, Paul J. Casey from Australia, Kiyomi Sugahara from
Japan and John S. Rowe from Australia. The meeting was also
attended by Renton de Alwis, PATA Asia's vice president.

The 42-year-old PATA currently has 16,000 individual members
and 2,000 organizational members which include countries, travel
agencies, air carriers, hotels and restaurants.

Indonesia last year gained revenues of US$3.99 billion from
3.4 million foreign visitors. The number of tourists visiting
Indonesia is expected this year to reach 3.88 million, who will
likely spend $5.4 billion during their stays. (09)