PATA 70th Anniversary: Looking Back From the Eyes of Tunku Iskandar
The PATA Life Membership Awards is given to nominated members who satisfied at least 8 requirements, including: being an active member of PATA for at least 10 years, being active at various levels of PATA, such as Chapter, Divisional and/or Board levels, has been cited for the quality of his / her contribution in tourism, professionally and within the individual’s community, and more. As a general rule, except for unusual situations, only one award is given in this category each year.
In PATA’s 70 years of history (as of May 2021), 120 members have been awarded this honour.
About Tunku Iskandar
Tunku Dato’ Seri Iskandar Bin Tunku Abdullah (or Tunku Iskandar, as he is better known in tourism circles) is Executive Chairman of The Melewar Group that encompasses several tourism-related companies, including Mitra Travel, Tours, Mitra Kembara, Pacific World Travel, APG Malaysia and World Express Malaysia. Internationally, he sits on the Boards of The Travel Partnership Corporation Inc. (USA) and APG Inc. (France).
Over the past 40 years, he led various associations including:
Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) – past Chairman, Life Member & current Board Member
APG Global Associates Network (APG-GA) – Board Member & Regional Vice President (APAC)
ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) – former President & Life Member
Federation of ASEAN Travel Association (FATA) – former President
Indian Ocean Tourism Organisation (IOTO) - former Chairman
National Tourism Council of Malaysia (NTCM) - Founder Chairman
Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) – past President
SKAL International Kuala Lumpur – former President
Rotary Club of Ampang (Malaysia) – Past President
He was formerly member of the Boards of Malaysian Tourism Promotion Board and Tourist Development Corporation of Malaysia, Board of Governors of Commonwealth Tourism Centre and Deputy Director of United Federation of Travel Agents’ Associations (UFTAA).
Tunku Iskandar was awarded the Malaysia Tourism Gold Award in 2005 in recognition for his contribution to tourism by the Ministry of Tourism of Malaysia and the inaugural MATTA Tourism Icon Award in 2019 for his contribution to the Malaysian tourism industry. In 2018, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate in Business by Taylor’s University of Malaysia for his significant achievements in tourism and other areas of business.
It was in Melbourne in April 1988 during the 37th Annual Conference that I was approached by 2 Board Members who asked whether I was interested to stand as PATA’s President-Elect (today the position is Chairman-Elect) the following year, which would lead to becoming President 2 years later. I truly had to give this a lot of thought and asked if I could give my answer the next day. Six months earlier, I had undergone a triple-bypass cardiac surgery but although I already felt fit as a fiddle, I was still apprehensive and felt I needed to talk this over by phone with my wife, Maneesah as she could not make this trip with me. She encouraged me to go for it if I felt up to it, and the next morning at breakfast I conveyed my decision to accept the nomination. It was perhaps one of the busiest year of my life as I was tasked to head up a task force to make recommendations to revamp the association, that took all the 12 months culminating in the report “Direction 2000” which was adopted at the AGM in Singapore in 1989 where I was also elected as President.
1990 was of course very memorable as presided at the 39th Annual Conference in Vancouver, Canada and I became the first and still the only Malaysian elected as President or Chairman of PATA and every year thereafter until today, I continued to play an active role in PATA, something I did not envisage when I attended my first PATA Annual Conference in Sydney in 1975.
Tunku Iskandar (left) awards Chuck Gee of the Travel Industry Management School, University of Hawaii, his Life Membership as President of PATA.
PATA’s Annual Conferences assembled a collection of fantastic speakers and it is very difficult to pinpoint one who made a major impact on the way I was to navigate my way around the travel and tourism business over the ensuing 45+ years. Listening Nicholas Negroponte speak an one of our Conferences opened my eyes to the way the world was going to turn on its head in the way people would interact, with the Internet and the World Wide Web, so much so that when Renton De Alwis showed me how to communicate on the Internet, I told everyone in my companies that I was going to instal email for everyone which they had to check regularly as that would be my main means of written communication with them, and if you miss it, you will miss out. Several years later, PATA CEO Peter de Jong asked me be the point-person from PATA to be involved with a new internet domain, dot.travel and I remain involved till today helping to strategise a wider usage of this top-level domain.
At the very start of my deeper involvement with PATA in 1988, Dharmnoon Prachuabmoh who was then PATA President asked me to lead a Task Force to revamp PATA which I undertook with a lot of trepidation as there were many members with far longer history with the association’s evolution and some of the recommendations that were put forward were revolutionary! However, I was very impressed with so many members who at board, chapter and general membership levels who put in their ideas and opinions, and I was very fortunate to have Edward Beauchamp who acted as “secretariat” for the Task Force as otherwise it was impossible to collate all the inputs.
Undoubtedly it was the friendships created that sometimes lead to business and also business links that sometimes lead to friendships. However it did not matter if one did not lead to the other, but it resulted in have people in my life in all corners of the globe, and we meet each over business deals, social gatherings and sometimes on pre or post PATA event unofficial tours personally led by a friend. One I thoroughly enjoyed and will always fondly remember is led by Inder Sharma to the Punjab and Simla, and one that I personally led to Malacca and my hometown, Seri Menanti in Malaysia.
1986: PATA Travel Mart, Kuala Lumpur
L/R: Maneesah Iskandar (partner of Tunku Iskandar), Nobutaka Ishikure (PATA Life Member), Tunku Iskandar
Story Time! A hilarious moment in PATA Annual Conference, 1995:
After the Annual Conference in Auckland in 1995, quite a number of us were on a flight out to Sydney, among them were two Zecha brothers, one was Alwin Zecha who was the only 2-term PATA President, and the other was Austen Zecha who was heading AMC Communications handling Tourism Malaysia’s advertising and PR programme. Alwin was waitlisted on the flight but decided to go-show at the gate and was happy when he was allowed to board. Little did he know that Austen who was in the toilet went late to the gate and found the doors closed. The airline boarding staff had decided to accept the wrong Zecha (both first names start with “A”) and to compound matters, Austen’s wife had chosen to swap seats with another friend and did not notice that he had not boarded. It was only in Sydney that we discovered Austen was missing!
