Tag Archives: PATA

Speaking on the impact of AI & ChatGPT on travel industry at the PATA India Chapter’s webinar, Matt Gibson, CEO, UPTHINK said, “AI is no replacement for travel professionals, as it cannot offer the personalisation that tour operators/ travel agents can give.”    

PATA India Chapter will organize a webinar on AI & ChatGPT 2023 today at 11 am. The speaker of the event is Matt Gibson, CEO of UpThink, a digital specialist in content, SEO, influencer marketing & AI integration for the travel industry.

PATA research titled Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2023-2025 has revealed that travels within AsiaPacific will continue to dominate in the region. International Visitor Arrivals in Asia-Pacific will return to roughly similar 2019 proportions (82.09%) by 2025 (82.38% in a medium scenario).

Runeep Sangha, Executive Director, PATA India Chapter said, “It’s time we have a separate strategy for India as a long-haul destination because people coming from the Americas, Canada, Europe, etc are the markets from our travelers spend the most money and if we put together and showcase India as a long-haul destination, we should report benefits.” 

Liz Ortiguera, CEO, PATA, has said that there is an issue of the industry staffing gap across the world, which needs to be filled. For which, she has suggested many things for employers, including fair wages, acknowledging great service delivery, ensuring a culture of respect for staff, staff feedback and engagement, concern for staff welfare, support development, creating clear and fair career paths and introduce staff to leaders they can relate to.

PATA, as part of its latest quarterly updated international visitor arrivals (IVAs) forecast has projected that Asia Pacific will reach an IVA count in 2024 of 510-832 million. Liz Ortiguera, CEO, PATA, said, “While a positive turning point is predicted to occur in 2022 for all the 39 Asia Pacific destinations covered in these updated forecasts, many market variables are currently influencing travel and significant challenges still lay ahead.”

Vikram Madhok, Managing Director, Abercombie & Kent (India), and Hon. Secretary, PATA India Chapter, has said that if the scheduled flight operations are restarted, then the last quarter of 2022 will see inbound tourism to revive in India. “In fact, 2023 will be a hockey stick revival for Incredible India,” he added.

Asia is predicted to return to a significant level of dominance, supplying more than 64% of all IVAs into Asia Pacific in 2024, under each of the three scenarios, followed by the Americas and Europe. Overall, while the trends in these latest forecasts are positive, there are still challenges ahead, not the least of which will be containing the spread of the Delta and Omicron variants of COVID-19. As PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera notes, “International travel recovery to and within the Asia Pacific region is projected to return moderately over the next three years. Recovery will be uneven into the various sub-regions and destinations and will most likely still remain volatile over the next few years. Some individual destinations may see success but expedited recovery of the region requires a more collaborative approach.” 

In its 249th EC Meeting on 23rd December, 2021PATA India Chapter announced that Arvind Singh, Secretary, Tourism, will remain as Chairman. Apart from that Jatinder Taneja, MD, Travel Spirit International was re-elected unopposed as the Vice Chairman; as well as Vikram Madhok, MD, Abercrombie & Kent as Hon. Secretary. SanJeet, Director, DDP Publications, remains Hon. Treasurer and  Runeep Sangha will continue as Executive Director, PATA India Chapter.

During an insightful webinar organised by PATA, Prof John Koldowski, School of Tourism, Leshan University in China, said, “It looks like another tough year for inbound travel into India. But, if India can show that it is containing the spread of infection and upped its immunisation process, the numbers can improve. The outbound travel numbers from India however look more robust.”