Optimism shines at conference

Press, 1 May 1984, Page 23

Optimism shines at conference

Unlike the FATA conferences of 1982 and 1983 in Bangkok and Acapulco, this year’s conference in Colombo was marked by a refreshing note of optimism. The message was clear and simple: tourism, at last, is on the move again.

“There’s a new breath of air in our industry, a new sense of opportunity,” said the association’s executive vice-president, Mr Ken Chamberlain. “It’s considerably more bullish than it was this time last year.”

The United States economy showed a 7.2 per cent growth rate in the first quarter of 1984 and there had also been healthy gains in Australia, Germany, and Japan, he said.

Australia has wasted no time in making the most of the upturn. It has launched a major world-wide “Welcome to Australia” campaign aimed at doubling visitor numbers by 1988. The Australia Tourist Commission predicts its biggest growth area will be Asia which should be producing 380,000 visitors by 1988. Australia also made a recent drive for tourists from the Middle East when repre-

ence. Ralph Anderson’s colour photographs of Mitre Peak won the gold award and an entry, “Skyline at Sunrise” by Winton Cleal won the tourist attractions category prize. Mr Jim Thompson, chairman of the National Travel Association and a PATA board member, was one of six individuals to receive an award of merit from PATA.

The first tourist packages to Kampuchea available to citizens of non-communist countries are now being marketed in Australia, it was announced at the conference. The one-week tours, offered by Orbitours of Sydney, include stops at Phnom Penh and Angkor Wat, in Kampuchea, as well as Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

Sri Lanka is banking on a much-needed boost for its tourism industry in the wake of the conference. Civil disturbances in the north of Sri Lanka last July shattered what had become a booming tourist industry. Delegates were assured that, in spite of isolated skirmishes in recent weeks, the over-all situation in Sri Lanka was under control.

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sentatives of 36 Australian travel organisations conducted seminars for 61 travel agents from the Gull States.

Delegates were told that about 260,000 Japanese newlyweds will have travelled abroad for honeymoon

trips in the three-month period ending May 31. The Japan Travel Bureau said

By LES BLOXHAM, travel editor, who attended the thirty-third annual conference of the Pacific Area Travel Association in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last month.

this would account for 73 per cent of all couples married in Japan during this period. Each couple will have spent an estimated SNZ4SOO on their trip. Hawaii tops the list of destinations, followed by Europe.

New Zealand’s National Publicity Studios again won major awards at the confer-