PATA elects new members to its executive board

Monday, July 8, 2019

Recently, the Pacific Asia Travel Association announced the ratification of the 2019/2020 of PATA Executive Board. It was decided that . Dr. Chris Bottrill, Dean of Fine and Applied Arts, and Director, International at Capilano University in North Vancouver, Canada and Ms. Sarah Mathews, Head of Destination Marketing APAC – TripAdvisor, Hong Kong SAR have been formally approved to continue for an additional one-year term as Chairman and Immediate Past Chairperson, respectively. Five new members were also elected to the executive board during the PARA Annual Summit 2019 in Cebu, Philippines.

Mr. Soon-Hwa Wong, CEO – Asia Tourism Consulting Pte. Ltd., Singapore; Mr. Benjamin Liao, Chairman – Forte Hotel Group, Chinese Taipei; Ms Jennifer Chun, Director, Tourism Research – Hawaii Tourism Authority, USA; Mr. Vinoop Goel, Regional Director – Airports & External Relations, International Air Transportation Association (IATA), Singapore, and Mr. Henry Oh, Jr., Chairman – Global Tour Ltd., Korea (ROK) are among the newly appointed professionals.

The new Vice Chairman is Mr. Soon-Hwa Wong and the Secretary/ Treasurer is Ms. Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes.In the Asia Pacific tourism and hospitality industry Mr. Soon Hwa holds some 40 years of extensive experience in the Asia Pacific tourism and hospitality industry. He founded the Asia Tourism Consulting to provide advisory and consulting services to commercial and not-for-profit enterprises. In 1993 he started the Hertz Asia Pacific office in Singapore and helped Blacklane GmBH in setting up the regional office. He built a service network around 80 cities.He also worked as the Regional Manager-South East Asia for Air New Zealand, GM Marketing of Mansfield Travel and Deputy GM Avis Singapore.

On the election of the new Executive Board PATA CEO Mario Hardy is looking forward to work with their new Executive Board in supporting thetheir members in creating a responsible travel and tourism industry in the Asia Pacific region.

He said that their Executive Board this year is truly an example of PATA’s diversity and expertise. He felt proud to recognise that PATA has five women on its Executive Board and five representatives from the Pacific, who will work alongside the other members representing the Americas, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia.
He was confident that together they will continue to support the productive efforts of the global tourism industry and the core values at PATA.

Additionally, Mr Josefa Tuamoto, CEO – Tourism Solomons, Solomon Islands and Dr. Fanny Vong, President – Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT), Macao, China have been appointed to the Executive Board as non-voting members.

After the invitation of the PATA Chairman, Ms Flori-Anne Dela Cruz, Youth Representative – Guam Visitors Bureau Board of Directors, Guam and PATA Face of the Future 2019, joins the PATA Executive Board as a non-voting member and observer for a one-year term.

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