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PATA CEO Martin Craigs is bursting with ideas to give tourism its scientific dimension, especially to Politicians. In exclusivity, he unveils to Traveldailynews.asia some of its new concepts…
BANGKOK- It seems that the current trend in the tourism industry is to neologism or new expressions. Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of the ICTP (International Coalition of Tourism Partners) recently spoke of “travelism”. Martin Craigs, PATA CEO, wants to talk about “Visitors’Economy” rather than “Economy of Tourism”.
“Visitors economy adds a new dimension to tourism and is a term which will embrace all the components of the travel industry. Tourist is a restrictive definition [Tourists are officially only travellers spending at least an overnight as classified by the UNWTO] as it does not take into consideration all visitors. A day-traveller is also a factor of economic development and our definition will certainly stress more than ever the importance of travel and tourism on the well-being of societies around the world”, he explains.
In his active role of advocating the power of tourism around the world, it is certain that Martin Craigs will not miss an opportunity to highlight what “Visitors Economy” means.
At PATA level, the CEO comes with the idea of launching a master course on visitors’ economy. “We want to organize master courses every quarter and attract what I would call the “mid-market” of Asia-Pacific travel industry. People who are motivated to embrace all the elements behind a global visitors’ economy, from communication to social media, from niche markets to good practice in the industry”, he says.
The Master would welcome 36 to 40 participants and invite international lecturers. “We will try to mix as much as possible nationalities to avoid the dominance of one group over another”, tells Craigs. The format will be a week of intensive work with three days of lectures and seminars followed by three days of practice by visiting companies in various fields of activities such as air transport, administration, tourist authorities or hotel companies. A certificate will then be delivered to participants.
The recent participation of PATA to the last Mekong working group meeting in Ninh Binh in Northern Vietnam gave also new ideas to PATA CEO. “We worked on a project which would help highlight the strength of the Mekong Sub-region in terms of tourism development and infrastructure. We will soon announce the result of our talks with the Mekong Tourism Coordinating Office, the Asian Development Bank as well as other international institutions and NTOs”, promises Craigs, who adds. “I believe that more and more international institutions see now the benefits of working all together. We then speak with a single voice about visitor’s economy and share together the benefits of its continuous growth,” he concludes.
Luc Citrinot a French national is a freelance journalist and consultant in tourism and air transport with over 20 years experience. Based in Paris and Bangkok, he works for various travel and air transport trade publications in Europe and Asia.
