(From the Macau Host Committee)

The 54th PATA Annual Conference will commence tomorrow morning (18 April) at the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre. Mr Edmund Ho, Chief Executive of Macau SAR will officiate the opening ceremony.

About 1,200 delegates and guests are expected to take part in the 54th PATA Annual Conference, which will be held from 17 to 21 April in the Macau Tower Convention and Entertainment Centre.

At the media briefing today (17 April) were Dr Chui Sai-On, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture of the Government of the Macau SAR and Chairman of the Macau Host Committee, Engineer João Manuel Costa Autunes, Director of the Macau Government Tourist Office and Chairman of the Organising Committee, Mr. Ram Kohli, Chairman of PATA, and Mr. Peter de Jong, President & CEO of PATA.

Engineer João Autunes, Chairman of the Organising Committee reported the latest progress of the preparations, and that all the constituents of the Macau Host Committee, namely the Advisory Committee, Organising Committee and the Secretariat, were in full swing to prepare for the best of the event.

Delegates and guests of this year's event are top-notch tourism personnel and leaders from all over the world. Respectable officials and Life Members of PATA are invited to attend the conference. Ministers' level tourism officials from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, Australia, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Timor Leste and Mainland China have also confirmed their participation in the event.

Over 50 internationally renowned professionals and scholars in the tourism industry from Macau, Hong Kong, Mainland China, North America, Europe, Australia, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand, among others, will speak at various conference sessions, and together with the tourism stakeholders present, they will probe into the current trend of tourism development and share their insights and valuable experiences.


Keynote speaker of the opening session of the Conference is Mr Giovanni Bisignani, Director General and CEO of IATA whereas Mr Vincent H S Lo, Chairman of Shui On Holdings Limited, Hong Kong will be the keynote speaker at the Closing ceremony.

The opening and closing ceremonies of the Conference will be marked by performances, highlighted with much cultural uniqueness, dedicated by the host - Macau and the host of next year's event - Thailand respectively. The PATA Annual Industry Dinner, this year specially programmed to highlight the Sino-Portuguese cultural mix in Macau, will be held on 18 April.

Promotion of the Conference kicked off a flying start with the promotion trails broadcasted through CNN and media coverage in both international and regional travel magazines as well as local newspapers. Large scale promotional activities had already started before the conference and will continue during the conference period.

More than 230 members of the media from Macau, Hong Kong, Mainland China and other parts of the world are attracted to cover the event in Macau. In order to promote the conference to a broader audience, the Macau Host Committee will be working with MSTV to transmit important footage of the Conference through satellite, facilitating more instant and convenient coverage by the international media.