The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA)’s 60th Anniversary and Conference, to be held on April 9-12, 2011 at the China World Hotel, Beijing, the highlight of the Association’s year-long campaign of events and activities, will focus on some of the biggest issues facing travel-and-tourism executives. The conference programme will include sessions on distribution challenges, changing demographics, aviation, Responsible Tourism and technology.  
  
Bringing together more than 1,000 delegates from all aspects of the travel-and-tourism sector, it will also recall the contribution PATA has made over the past six decades, as well as look forward to the role the Association will play in the years to come.  
  
Leading discussions will be high profile speakers from both within and outside the industry. Speakers already confirmed include: Robert Broadfoot, Founder and Managing Director, Political and Economic Risk Consultancy Ltd; Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor and Ray Hammond, futurist and author.  
  
Also joining in will be senior executives from Ctrip China, MakeMyTrip India, Global Demographics, Responsibletravel.com, Boeing, Sinotech Group and ComScore, amongst others.  
  
Taking the theme ‘Building Tourism: Past, Present, Progressive’, the conference is the focal point of a number of activities being held to celebrate PATA’s milestone year. Hiran Cooray, Chairman, PATA said, “With 60 years of history behind us, we want to take the opportunity to recall the contribution PATA has made to Asia Pacific tourism, as also to look ahead and consider what role PATA will play in the years to come.”  
  
Since its 1951 inception in Hawaii, PATA has grown from a group of like-minded travel professionals seeking to realise the potential of tourism in the Pacific region to a global association representing the interests of the ever-growing Pacific Asia tourism industry.  
  
Cooray added, “Contributing to the sustainable development and success of the travel and tourism industry in both the Pacific and Asia regions, PATA has become the voice and authority on tourism in the region.”