{"id":224507,"date":"2016-04-04T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-04-03T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=224507"},"modified":"2016-04-04T06:00:08","modified_gmt":"2016-04-03T20:00:08","slug":"cnmi-tourism-stakeholders-invited-pata-summit-guam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/cnmi-tourism-stakeholders-invited-pata-summit-guam\/","title":{"rendered":"CNMI tourism stakeholders invited to PATA summit in Guam"},"content":{"rendered":"
PATA-Micronesia chapter is inviting tourism stakeholders in the CNMI to participate in the 2016 PATA International Summit that will be held for the first time in Guam in May. In the photo, from left to right, are chapter vice chair and FSM Tourism Unit Division of Resources Management and Development program manager Bermance Aldis, chapter treasurer and MVA acting managing director Judy Torres, Guam\u2019s Sen. Tina Mu\u00f1a-Barnes, and chapter chair Pilar Lagua\u00f1a. (Frauleine Villanueva-Dizon)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Pacific Asia Travel Association- Micronesia Chapter is inviting stakeholders in the CNMI to take part in the PATA-International annual summit which will be held in Guam for the very first time in May.<\/p>\n

Guam is among the founding members of PATA, which is celebrating its 65th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an opportunity that we, the entire region of Micronesia, have a chance to be in the limelight, in front of very significant stakeholders that move travel and tourism to, within, and from the Pacific Asia area. It\u2019s an exciting time for us in the industry,\u201d PATA-Micronesia Chapter chair Pilar Lagua\u00f1a told Saipan Tribune.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never had this type of platform before given to us, but we are such an active chapter that I think they noticed us,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

As a member of the PATA-Micronesia Chapter, the Marianas Visitors Authority will be among the attendees from the CNMI.<\/p>\n

\u201cMVA is joining, our new managing director will be on board that time and he will also be attending as a PATA board member. At the same time, MVA will also be there to showcase our destination through a hospital desk to the delegation that will be attending,\u201d chapter treasurer and MVA acting managing director Judy Torres said.<\/p>\n

Torres said interested parties in the CNMI need not to be PATA members to attend, however, their membership enrolment is always open.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good conference to attend. We have the key players, key stakeholders that will be there and they will bring a wealth of information in terms of tourism industry,\u201d Torres said. <\/p>\n

The summit will be held from May 18 to 22 at the Dusit Thani Guam Resort, with the one-day conference happening on May 19.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur theme for this summit, we wanted it to relate to Pacific Islanders, its called, \u2018Exploring the Secrets of the Blue Continent.\u2019 Blue continent because there\u2019s ocean between all of us and yet we are one. We are really united as one,\u201d Lagua\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have wonderful speakers that will talk about issues related to future forecast trends of travel and tourism in the Asia-Pacific area and we will have speakers that will talk about sustainable tourism which is always a big issue to us,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

Other topics include \u2018Shaping the Intangibles through Hyper Connections\u2019;\u00a0 \u2018Driving Solo or Following the Pack\u2019,\u00a0 \u2018Mastering the Skill of Future Trend Forecast\u2019; \u2018Techie HCD Solutions for Higher Profitability\u2019; \u2018Creating One of the Best Workspaces\u2019, and \u2018Less Space, More Popularity\u2013Finding the Balance\u2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Confirmed speakers include Andrew Dixon, owner of Nikoi and Cempedak Islands; Daniel Levine, director, The Avant-Guide Institute; Eric Ricaurte, founder and CEO of Greenview; Mark Schwab, CEO of Star Alliance; Sarah Mathews, head of Destination Marketing APAC at TripAdvisor, and Zolt\u00e1n Somogyi, executive director for Programme and Coordination at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).<\/p>\n

On May 21, PATA and the United Nations World Tourism Organization will join forces and host a half day ministerial debate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in history that we have PATA and the UN together in the Pacific and it\u2019s going to happen in our region,\u201d Lagua\u00f1a said, \u201cIt will be a very exciting event because we have BBC World, they are a huge sponsor of PATA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Events for the youth will also be held on the first day of the summit at the University of Guam together with the Guam Community College and the Guam Visitors Bureau is assisting them,\u201d Lagua\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will have PATA tourism experts go to the youth symposium and speak to the students about issues that concern the students and what\u2019s on their mind for future tourism development for the islands,\u201d she added. <\/p>\n

Pre- and post-tours for the Micronesian islands for the delegates are also being arranged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are inviting anyone interested in travel and tourism, find some time to go to pata.org\u2026and you\u2019ll see the information about the summit on Guam and they can register as a delegate. There are fees to it but it is an incredible opportunity,\u201d Lagua\u00f1a said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pacific Asia Travel Association- Micronesia Chapter is inviting stakeholders in the CNMI to take…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":224509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[26,3567,212,3353],"class_list":["post-224507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","tag-cnmi","tag-guam-community-college","tag-mva","tag-pata"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}