BANGKOK, 11 March 2022: The on and off PATA Annual Summit is off again at least until October this year, according to the latest announcement from the Pacific Asia Travel Association.
Repeatedly hit by lockdowns and severe travel restrictions, the annual summit was first scheduled for Ras Al Khaimah from 15 to 18 May 2019. Then it was rescheduled for dates in March 2020 to enable delegates to enjoy early bird visits to the Dubai Expo 2020.
That didn’t work out thanks to Covid-19’s global spread, and neither did rescheduling the dates for an in-person event in March 2021 for the same obvious reason. Covid-19 had us all locked down.
But we thought the summit had finally settled like a homing pigeon in the calendar box, 27 to 25 March 2022, just in time to catch the last moments of the Dubai Expo that closes on 31 March.
Now we are told that is not the case. The summit moves to dates 25 to 27 October 2022. The only reassuring constant during all the turmoil of the last two years Ras Al Khaimah remained true to its commitment to host the summit whatever the year.
Hosted and financially underwritten by the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (RAKTDA), the three-day event will adopt the theme of Reconnecting the World.
The event will comprise conference presentations, leadership task force sessions, workshops, the PATA board meetings and a travel mart component. The summit agenda will play out in various locations across the Emirate, including the Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah, The Ritz-Carlton Al Wadi Desert and Al Hamra International Exhibition & Conference Centre.
“We are delighted that we will still be organising the PATA Annual Summit in Ras Al Khaimah this year. It will bring together our industry network to discuss opportunities and best practices to enable recovery and sustainable growth,” said PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera.
Most PATA delegates will be pretty relieved to see the annual summit back, although the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation has sent energy costs soaring to new heights. If the war widens and oil and gas taps turn off, it could inflict a catastrophic impact on the tourism industry’s ability to recover from more than two years of heavy losses caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and now a war in Europe.
To register for the event, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/e/pata-annual-summit-2022-tickets-227553537757. For more information, visit www.PATA.org/pas-2022 or email [email protected].
