Mr. Toney K. Thomas is the recipient of the most prestigious honour for young tourism professionals in Asia Pacific – the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Face of the Future. Mr. Thomas is Programme Director and Senior Lecturer at the School of Tourism, Events and Recreation, Taylor’s University College, Malaysia…
Mr. Toney K. Thomas is the recipient of the most prestigious honour for young tourism professionals in Asia Pacific – the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Face of the Future. Mr. Thomas is Programme Director and Senior Lecturer at the School of Tourism, Events and Recreation, Taylor’s University College, Malaysia.
He is set to receive the honour at an official awards ceremony taking place during the PATA Foundation annual charity gala dinner on 25 April at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Courtesy of IMEX (the worldwide exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events), Mr Thomas will be offered complimentary registration and subsidised travel to attend IMEX 2010 in Frankfurt, Germany later this year.
A native of India now based in Malaysia, Mr. Thomas’s teaching and research and development interests strongly complement several areas of existing expertise in Tourism and Development, particularly in sustainable tourism. He has published and presented his research work in Malaysia and abroad covering issues such as destination development, destination benchmarking and sustainable management of tourist destinations. He has presented papers at many national and international conferences and has also published a number of research papers.
Mr Thomas has trained academics, government officials and industry professionals in Malaysia and India in subjects ranging from destination marketing to sustainable tourism development under the auspices of such notable organisations as the Commonwealth Tourism Centre and the Central Government of India.
In 2009 he organised internship training at PATA for students studying tourism at Taylor’s. He is keen to ensure that students may benefit from valuable placements to maximise their educational experiences.
Mr. Thomas said, “I plan to contribute my expertise in various development sectors of tourism, working closely with organisations such as PATA.”
TravelDailyNews Asia-Pacific editorial team has an experience of over 35 years in B2B travel journalism as well as in tourism & hospitality marketing and communications.
