Five new committee members have joined the UK and Ireland chapter of Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata)
The newcomers, nominated by the existing board and committee, are:
- Jonathan Goldsmith, head of product sales at Cazenove+Loyd
- John Parker, product manager at Premier Holidays
- Gavin Dixon, product manager at Freedom Destinations
- Fiona Scott-Evans, product and contract manager at BA Holidays
- Tom Masson, sales manager at Air New Zealand
Chapter chairman Chris Crampton said: “It’s a pleasure to welcome these new voices to the Pata team, each brings a wealth of industry experience and knowledge and will be a great asset to the organisation.
“Their individual insight, from trade sales and luxury to tailormade travel and consumer trends will be invaluable.
“Their addition broadens the scope of Pata’s knowledge and ability to provide our members and travel agent network with the most productive events and training options based on real-time market and industry trends.”
Parker said: “I have always been passionate about promoting travel to the Asia Pacific region and joining the Pata committee offers a great platform to work with others to further raise the region’s profile and develop business opportunities.
“In particular, I am keen to advocate the increasing importance of responsible and sustainable travel as well as the promotion of lesser-known regions alongside those core destinations that the Asia Pacific is so famous for.”
He added: “We will see continued growth in business to some of the traditionally smaller/lesser-known resorts in our Far East destinations. We are already seeing this with the bookings for the year ahead.
“For example, whilst business into Phuket has flat-lined a little, Khao Lak, Krabi and even the smaller islands of Phi Phi, Koh Yao Yai and Koh Yao Noi in Thailand have seen really strong growth.
“Likewise, in Malaysia, the island of Langkawi is outselling Penang and in Bali, we are seeing places like Uluwatu grow whilst the much bigger resort of Nusa Dua has seen a little bit of a drop in numbers.”