Pacific Asia Travel Association focuses on the Gulf with regional appointment

PATA has appointed Ms Nicki Page, executive director of Fusion Marketing Management LLC, a Dubai-based specialist tourism marketing consultancy, as its regional representative.
After working with PATA on a project basis, Ms Page was formally appointed as PATA Director, Gulf Region, at a recent global planning meeting in Bangkok.

PATA President and CEO, Mr Peter de Jong said, the Gulf was a large and growing source of travellers for the Asia Pacific region, with visitor arrivals to Asia growing at an average rate of 12 per cent a year since 2001.

He said airlines were also recognising the huge two-way growth potential between the Gulf and Asia, with scheduled seat capacity rising from 276,000 per week in 2000 to 430,000 per week in 2006.

"By establishing a PATA presence, we are demonstrating our commitment to the region and our desire to forge close relationships with the industry," Mr de Jong said.

"We are delighted to appoint someone of the calibre of Nicki Page and her company Fusion Marketing to help build the PATA brand in the Gulf, to grow our membership ranks and to tap the extraordinary potential of the region."

PATA already has several members in the Gulf including several UAE travel agencies, Jumeirah Group; Bahrain International Airport; Gulf Air; Gulf International Convention & Exhibition Centre (Bahrain); and Qatar Tourism Authority.

Ms Page said she was looking forward to expanding both private and public sector membership of PATA. Formed 55 years ago, PATA is one of the world's leading travel associations with chapters in Asia, Pacific, the Americas and Europe.

Its members range from airlines and airports to Government tourism organisations, tour operators, travel agents, travel trade associations and travel media.