WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 26, 2013) – The Global Sustainable Tourism Council(GSTC) is pleased to announce a partnership as undersigned in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Pacific Asia Travel Association(PATA), a not-for-profit trade membership association headquartered in Bangkok, Thailand. PATA Chief Executive Officer Martin Craigs and GSTC Board Member Guy Chester signed the MoU on April 26 during the PATA Annual Summit in Bangkok.

The MoU details three main areas of cooperation between the two organizations:

·      PATA’s support and endorsement of GSTC’s sustainability criteria,

·      joint advocacy and policy development, and

·      collaborative awareness efforts regarding sustainability practices.

Among the various collaborative efforts currently being planned, the GSTC is developing a webinar about the GSTC’s recognized standards that will be presented to PATA’s members at the Bangkok headquarters in July. The GSTC’s standards are the only global sustainable tourism criteria in the world recognized by the United Nations. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) are permanent members of the Council, and both are officially represented in its Board of Directors.

 “PATA’s reputation for promoting responsible development of travel and tourism, coupled with its prominence in the Asia Pacific region, will increase GSTC’s reach to other tourism partners in moving global sustainability efforts forward,” GSTC Board Chair Dr. Kelly Bricker said. “Our collaboration with this large and established travel trade association will certainly provide new opportunities to learn from each other and share sustainability practices within this culturally rich and biologically diverse region of the world,” she said.

PATA Chief Executive Officer Martin Craigs echoed Bricker’s remarks regarding the expansion of sustainability efforts in Asian Pacific markets.

“Balanced intelligent growth via sustainability is at the core of the visitor economy.  I am consequently delighted to have GSTC as a new value-adding partner for PATA,” PATA Chief Executive Officer Martin Craigs said. “GSTC's sustainability benchmarking work in recent years is widely admired and very pragmatic. PATA has a proud 40-plus year history of pragmatic engagement on sustainability issues. Together with GSTC, we will strive to guide stakeholders in the Asia Pacific visitor economy between people, profits and planet,” he said.

About GSTC

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council is a global initiative dedicated to promoting sustainable tourism efforts around the world. The GSTC works to expand understanding of and access to sustainable tourism practices; helps identify and generate markets for sustainable tourism; educates about and advocates for a set of universal principles, as defined by the Global Sustainable Tourism Criteria. The Criteria, a set of voluntary principles that provide a framework for the sustainability of tourism businesses across the globe, are the keystone of this initiative. For more information visit www.gstcouncil.org.

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About PATA


Since its foundation in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), a not-for profit membership association, has achieved international acclaim by acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.

The Association provides aligned advocacy, leadership and events to its members, comprising 90 government, state and city tourism bodies, nearly 30 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 57 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond.

Thousands of travel professionals belong to dozens of local PATA chapters worldwide. The chapters organise travel industry training and business development events. PATA's ‘Next Generation' mPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members' mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA's headquarters is in Bangkok.Visit www.PATA.org