PATA forum hails responsible travel

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Destination Experience Forum and Mart 2023 (PDFM 2023) was recently hosted by the Sarawak Tourism Board at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching in Sarawak, Malaysia.
The three-day event themed ‘Sustainability in Action’, saw 272 delegates from 28 destinations coming together to discuss the latest in travel trends, the future of tourism and why responsible travel is the need of the hour.
PATA Chair Peter Semone said that the tourism sector is at a crucial juncture; it is time for change and for the sector to embrace sustainability. In his opening note to the conference, he said: “In 1991, PATA had an annual conference in Bali, which was about sustainability …we spoke about all these issues years ago. I think, this is going to be a dance between tourists and the destinations. Tourists are just as responsible for being and acting sustainable as are the suppliers of tourism. And my theory is this: firstly, we should have some sort of a conduct when a visitor comes to visit a destination.”
As the number of tourists rise exponentially – they have increased year on year since the crash of tourism in the year of COVID-19, in 2020; the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that in 2023, 235 million tourists travelled internationally in the first three months, more than double those in the same period of 2022 – they put ever more pressure on the resources and infrastructure of the visited country. But if these numbers were to demand sustainable travel, it would also increase the chances of the country following responsible guidelines.

A FINE BALANCE
Semone said: “I can tell you from the PATA perspective, destinations are looking for answers to what are complicated questions, and I don’t want to be naïve and suggest sustainability at the price of profit; it can’t be, because companies have to make profit. People invest money into businesses with the expectation to get money in return, so there has to be a lot of balance that has to happen; economic balancing, environmental balancing; and of course, the communities’ needs in question. So, it’s a real complicated question, we are in a race…we need to redefine how we operate tourism and what the expectations of our customers are.”
Sharzede Datu Hj. Salleh Askor, the Chief Executive Officer of the Sarawak Tourism Board (STB), pointed out the Sarawak has been practising sustainable travel for some time. “We are very fortunate that Sarawak tourism has never looked into mass tourism, we have always looked into niche tourism and marketing. We started looking into digital tourism since 2018 and we started that journey and we looked into greening since 2011, but now with everything more focused on sustainability, it helps us to accelerate and intensify our activities and initiatives towards that,” she said.