Dream to Travel Post-Event Report: Lighting Up the Tourism Industry with PATA’s First Ever Virtual Event
Three months into the global pandemic, PATA launched its first virtual event - the PATA Dream to Travel Festival - on June 22nd, 2020. Across a duration of four weeks, the event displayed proud cultural and touristic assets from 11 destinations, invited professionals to shed light on current issues, and connected the audience through games and networking sessions. With Visa as the Platinum Sponsor, the Catalan Tourism Board as Gold Partner and the Seville Tourism Consortium as the Gold Sponsor, the festival brought together travel businesses worldwide to celebrate the resilience and the power of travel during this challenging period.
Through 60 hours of original content across this month-long event, the festival garnered over 59,000 eyeballs and was covered in five leading English-language daily newspapers. The event was streamed on Zoom and Facebook simultaneously, with the highest reach for one session exceeding 20,000 views.
The festival’s four Destination Partners- the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Tourism Malaysia, Nepal Tourism Board and the Macao Government Tourism Office were joined by the Catalonia Tourist Board and Seville Tourism Consortium, as well as PATA members representing Bhutan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Maldives, and Tahiti. The audience was treated to live virtual cultural experiences that ranged from cooking shows to guided city tours, to help fulfill their desires of taking a trip abroad. The content came in a wide range of formats with “Guided Tours & Attractions” and “Games & Giveaways” ranking first at 20% of the total time each, while “Education & Insights” came in third at 14% (8.5 hours total). There were also yoga sessions, musical and cultural performances to top off the event. These demonstrations no doubt offered all a chance for a taste of these appealing destinations that should now have landed on everyone’s traveling bucket list!
“We applaud PATA's initiative to bring us together online for the first time amidst these challenging times to give us an ideal platform as we engage and exchange ideas, celebrate the power of travel, and eventually find the courage to explore the world again.” - Datuk Musa Yusof - Director General, Tourism Malaysia
Source: Post-Event Report: Dream to Travel Festival (Aug 2020)
The event attracted over 1,300 registered attendees spanning across eight regions worldwide, with Southeast Asia occupying nearly 50%. The participants came from multiple sectors in the tourism industry, including tour operators, accommodations, NTOs, DMOs, to name a few, with the festival impacting and touching the lives of all stakeholders of the tourism industry.
“This first PATA digital event was a wise and timely initiative. With COVID-19 under control in Macao, our city is focused on the responsible restart of tourism.” ” - Maria Helena De Senna Fernandes, Director, Macao Government Tourism Office
Alongside the webinars, the Digital Showroom was another highlight of Dream to Travel Festival. Eighty-eight exhibitors displayed their tourism products, collectively reaching a total of 332 tourism products, generating 4,000 visits and an average of eight-minute duration per visit. Sellers from all parts of the tourism industry were able to display what they have to offer whether now or in the near future when traveling resumes, providing buyers a digital mart with comprehensive choices for consideration and purchases.
Source: Post-Event Report: Dream to Travel Festival (Aug 2020)
Deep appreciations to all the sponsors, partners, speakers, exhibitors and the audience who made this first-ever virtual event for PATA possible! We hope everyone enjoyed it. You can rewatch your favorite moments or catch up with the sessions you missed here. Until next time!
Download > Post Event Report: PATA Dream to Travel Festival (Aug 2020) (PDF, 2MB)