The 29th Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Travel Mart 2007 opened on Wednesday.
Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla, who opened the mart at the Bali International Convention Center, said that the event could promote the development of tourism industry in Asia and Pacific region, and especially recover the image of Bali in tourism field since it was hit by terrorist attack in 2002 and 2005.
Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minster Jero Watjik, PATA's President and CEO Peter de Jong and senior local officials as well as hundreds of representatives from 49 member countries and regions attended the opening ceremony.
This year's Mart, which was organized jointly by PATA and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Indonesia, was attended by about 1,500 representatives of buyers, sellers and journalists.
It sees 4,294 square meters of net floor space occupied by sellers, an increase of 218 square miters from last year. The mart will feature seven exhibit locations over the two floors of the Bali International Convention Center.
Some 423 buyers from 49 destinations at the PATA mart will meet, negotiate and contract with the sellers. Asia Pacific buyers accounted for half of the registered delegates including 28 buyers and 14 companies from China.
Meanwhile, it has also a record of 830 sellers from 38 countries and regions, with 262 delegates from 113 companies from Indonesia.
PATA is a non-profit travel trade association serving government tourist offices, airlines, hotels and other travel- related companies throughout the Asia Pacific region.
Indonesian Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik said the mart is making Indonesia, especially Bali, at its top performance as a safe, comfort and favorable touring destination. "This is as one of commitments from PATA to recover Indonesia's international image as a destination."
The minister said this mart's momentum should be optimized to improve the image of Indonesia as one of the best tourist destination in the world, since the country has been experiencing many natural disasters lately which caused greater impact to tourism industries.
The organizing committee's spokesman Ika Nazaruddin said earlier, tourism business could take advantage of this event to bring their variety of products and tourism-related services to the event, which was expected to improve Indonesia's image in the international community and encourage foreign tourists to visit the resort island.
The mart will be closed on Friday. Organizing officials said the next PATA mart will be held in India.
Source: Xinhua
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