Degrowth no response to climate change, say PATA, India as 196 buyers meet 159 sellers in New Delhi

Tourism’s degrowth is not an appro­pri­ate response to cli­mate change accord­ing to both V Vidyavathi, Sec­ret­ary of the Min­istry of Tour­ism, Gov­ern­ment of India, and Peter Semone, Chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA).

In response to your correspondent’s ques­tion at the offi­cial media brief­ing ses­sion at PATA Travel Mart 2023, Ms Vidyavathi said that degrowth was not a sus­tain­able strategy.

She explained that it was the Ministry’s intent to grow tour­ism while pro­mot­ing more sus­tain­able forms of tour­ism via its Travel for LiFE ini­ti­at­ive. “All for one; one for all.”

Addi­tion­al Sec­ret­ary Rakesh Kumar Verma had earli­er talked about a tar­get of 100 mil­lion inter­na­tion­al arrivals by 2046, up from the 17.9 mil­lion peak pri­or to COVID.

Mr Semone said that respond­ing to cli­mate change was about bal­ance: The power of tour­ism to bring togeth­er humans would help alle­vi­ate the threat of geo­pol­it­ic­al and social unrest; while con­cepts such as India’s Travel for LiFE would mit­ig­ate the neg­at­ive effects of cli­mate change.

These “exist­en­tial threats” — cli­mate change and geo­pol­it­ic­al and social unrest — have been a run­ning theme in Mr Semone’s pub­lic speak­ing at PATA Travel Mart 2023, includ­ing at the PATA Youth Sym­posi­um 2023 tak­ing place this afternoon.

What is Travel for LiFE?

Open­ing the media brief­ing, the Uni­on Sec­ret­ary for Tour­ism said the Min­istry was “very happy” to be host­ing the first in-per­son PATA Travel Mart since before COVID; that there was “no more oppor­tune moment” giv­en that 2023 was Vis­it India Year and the cul­min­a­tion of India’s pres­id­ency of the G20.

Travel for LiFE was for­mu­lated by the Uni­on Min­istry of Tour­ism in May 2023, dur­ing the G20 third tour­ism work­ing group meet­ing in Srin­agar, and launched on World Tour­ism Day, Septem­ber 27.

Travel for LiFE brings sus­tain­ab­il­ity policy to action, the Sec­ret­ary said. It offers a “clear path­way to act” for all stake­hold­ers in tour­ism, includ­ing travellers.

Rakesh Kumar Verma described Travel for LiFE as “sens­it­ising” the demand and sup­ply sides of the tour­ism industry to the import­ance to sus­tain­ab­il­ity and edu­cat­ing them on the “small” and “simple” actions they can take to be more sustainable.

PATA Chair introduces new CEO to media

PATA is also “delighted to be here in New Del­hi, India, host to PATA Travel Mart”, Mr Semone said. “Asia Pacific’s inter­na­tion­al travel trade exhib­i­tion [fea­tures] unpar­alleled net­work­ing and con­tract­ing oppor­tun­it­ies, con­nect­ing buy­ers and sellers from around the world to the Asia Pacific region.”

Mr Semone intro­duced PATA’s new Chief Exec­ut­ive Officer, Noor Ahmad Ham­id, to the gathered media delegates.

“His appoint­ment for a three-year term will ush­er in a new era for PATA as one of the world’s most influ­en­tial industry asso­ci­ations ded­ic­ated to pro­mot­ing respons­ible travel and tour­ism with­in the Asia Pacific region.”

“His extens­ive exper­i­ence in asso­ci­ation man­age­ment, par­tic­u­larly in the trade asso­ci­ation sec­tor, and his deep under­stand­ing of the Asia Pacific region make him the ideal lead­er for PATA in this cru­cial peri­od of change and challenge. 

“I am con­fid­ent that under his lead­er­ship and bolstered by the PATA mem­bers sup­port, we shall for­ti­fy PATA, bestow­ing enhanced mem­ber­ship bene­fits and con­trib­ut­ing to the emer­gence of a more resi­li­ent, respons­ible, and sus­tain­able travel and tour­ism industry through­out the Pacific Asia region.

1,000 join first post-COVID PATA Travel Mart

On PATA Travel Mart, the PATA Chair said: “For over 40 years, PATA Travel Mart’s con­tin­ued suc­cess has been due to its abil­ity to strike the right bal­ance between qual­ity and quant­ity when it comes to buy­er-seller appointments.

“I am pleased to announce that PATA Travel Mart 2023 has wel­comed a total of 159 sellers from 92 organ­isa­tions and 15 destinations.

“On the buy­er side, we are pleased to announce that we have a total of 196 buy­ers from 191 organ­isa­tions from 38 source markets. 

“Over­all, there are more than 1,000 del­eg­ates from 46 des­tin­a­tions around the world join­ing us here for this event.”

The PATA Gold Awards 2023 present­a­tion and lunch took place soon after the media brief­ing, hos­ted by long-stand­ing Gold Awards spon­sor Macao Gov­ern­ment Tour­ist Office (MGTO).

Fea­tured image (top of post): (L‑R) Addi­tion­al Sec­ret­ary of the Min­istry of Tour­ism, Gov­ern­ment of India, Rakesh Kumar Verma; V Vidyavathi, Sec­ret­ary of the Min­istry of Tour­ism, Gov­ern­ment of India; and Peter Semone, Chair of the Pacific Asia Travel Asso­ci­ation (PATA). Pic by Dav­id Gillbanks.

“GT” is attend­ing PATA Travel Mart at the kind invit­a­tion of PATA and thanks to the gen­er­os­ity of the event hosts, the Min­istry of Tour­ism, Gov­ern­ment of India.