The Pacific Asia Travel Association has signed a new agreement with EC3 Global, managers of the Green Globe brand, to
help significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its landmark new event, the PATA
CEO Challenge: Confronting Climate Change. Green Globe is the leading international environmental benchmarking and
certification programme for the travel and tourism industry.

“It is critical that PATA leads by example and does everything possible to minimise
the carbon emissions produced by this important and historic event to confront
climate change,” said PATA President & CEO, Mr Peter de Jong.

On 29-30 April 2008, travel and tourism industry leaders will gather in Bangkok,
Thailand, for the inaugural PATA CEO Challenge. It will be the first time that
decision-makers from all sectors of Asia Pacific travel and tourism meet to discuss
and agree to practical solutions to confront climate change. 

“EC3 and Green Globe are recognised as leaders in helping travel organisations
develop sustainable business models. We are delighted to be partnering with them on
this event and in other areas of PATA’s strategic operations,” said Mr de Jong. 

Mr de Jong said the PATA CEO Challenge organising team, like most event managers,
was relatively new to the process. “While this is new territory for us, we will be
doing everything possible to reduce our emissions, as well as learn how we can
improve our performance for future events. Our approach is to mitigate where
possible and offset where we can’t.” 

EC3 Global CEO, Mr Stewart Moore, said Green Globe was “absolutely committed” to
supporting PATA achieve its goals. “We will apply our science and systems to help
PATA significantly reduce its footprint for key elements of the event.  These
include ground transportation, accommodation, meals and other event logistics.”

International delegates to the event are also being encouraged to offset the carbon
emissions generated by their flights to and from Bangkok. The event venue - the
Centara Grand & Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld - has joined Green Globe’s
accreditation programme.

Many industry leaders have already committed to attend the event including Cathay
Pacific CEO Mr Tony Tyler, Accor Asia Pacific Chairman Mr David Baffsky and Banyan
Tree Chairman Mr K P Ho.

The PATA CEO Challenge is being held in partnership with BHN, the Burba Hotel
Network, and CAPA, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, and hosted by the Tourism
Authority of Thailand. For more information about the event, please visit
www.ceochallenge.pata.org.
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