Over 400 tourism industry delegates from 30 countries and regions will gather in Macao between Wednesday and Friday (May 15 to 17) for the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Annual Summit 2024. This is the first major PATA event held in Macao after the pandemic, providing the opportunity to showcase to participants from across the Asia Pacific region the new dynamic development of the destination as a world center of tourism and leisure.   

Hosted by the Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) and co-hosted by SJM Resorts, S.A., this year’s summit will take place at Grand Lisboa Palace Resort Macau, with the program starting on Wednesday with a wide array of PATA internal meetings, such as the Board Meeting and the Chapter Congress.

“Reimagining Tourism” in the Asia Pacific under discussion

The main highlight of the summit is a high-profile international conference, which will run aside from the multiple internal meetings of the association and several side events. The major international conference starts after the opening ceremony of the summit, scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Under the theme of “Reimagining Tourism”, the conference will present a two-day program featuring over 20 sessions and more than 40 speakers from Macao and across the world.

Among the highlights of the first day of the main conference are two panel discussions on “Marketing and Branding in Asia Pacific Tourism” and “Future-Proofing Travel and Tourism Policies”, moderated by the BBC News and featuring tourism heads from several destinations, including MGTO Director, Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, who will join the first one. The Economist Impact will also present an overview of the global economic landscape and its implications for the tourism sector for the next two years, among other sessions.

Tourism industry leaders discuss development trends

The top sessions for the second day of the conference include a “Conversation with Pansy Ho”, with PATA Chair, Peter Semone, interviewing the Executive Chairman and Managing Director of Shun Tak Holdings Limited. Euromonitor International will present “Key Travel and Tourism Trends to Watch”, while PATA will unveil a report on human capital development. Other sessions will focus on topics ranging from hotel and air travel trends, to travel technology and artificial intelligence, gastronomy tourism, educational tourism, nighttime economy, tourism synergies to diversify the economy, and more.

Events in tandem to focus on youth and the Greater Bay Area

Other events will also be held in tandem with the summit, with highlight to the PATA Youth Symposium 2024 gathering future tourism professionals from abroad and the Greater Bay Area, and the PATA – World Tourism Cities Federation (WTCF) China Dialogue, both scheduled for Thursday morning and featuring its own agenda.

The PATA – WTCF China Dialogue is a special session of the summit in Macao and will explore the challenges and opportunities in the Mainland China inbound market as well as in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Among the speakers are PATA Chair, Peter Semone, WTCF Executive Director, Chen Bo, representatives from Beijing, Qingdao, Hainan and more tourism bureaus, along with tourism operators and academia from Mainland China. The discussion topics include the latest policies and facilitation measures for inbound tourism and for digital payment for visitors, as well as the development of cross-regional travel in the Greater Bay Area.

Raise Macao’s international profile with the PATA Annual Summit

PATA has been dynamically promoting the summit highlights and the attractions of Macao as the host destination. More information and updates about the PATA Annual Summit 2024 are available at the event webpage: www.PATA.org/pata-annual-summit-2024.

For decades, PATA and its organized events have been a significant platform for Macao to connect with the global travel trade and raise its destination profile around the world. Macao successfully staged the PATA Annual Conference in 2005 and the PATA Travel Marts in 2010 and 2017. MGTO has been a PATA member since 1958. Macao has a PATA Chapter with 51 tourism industry members.

Founded in 1951, PATA is a non-profit membership association dedicated to building responsible development of the Asia-Pacific travel and tourism industry, with its members comprising government, state and city tourism bodies, international airlines, airports and cruise lines, educational institutions, and travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond.