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    Albay and Thekkady named PATA CEO Challenge 2015 top destinations

    October 20, 2015
    Tourism News
    Albay and Thekkady named PATA CEO Challenge 2015 top destinations

    Bangkok : The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) has announced the winners of the inaugural US$1 million PATA CEO Challenge 2015.

    The province of Albay, Philippines has been awarded the Top Destination Award in the category of Regions/States/Provinces.

    Thekkady, Kerala, India has been granted the Top Destination Award in the category of Second and Third Tier Cities.

    The two winning entries will work with PATA CEO Challenge 2015 partner TripAdvisor to develop and create digital marketing campaigns to showcase their destination to a global audience, valued at US$500,000 each.

    “It was difficult to choose only two winners, as we received some excellent submissions from destinations both near and far. All the submissions had unique stories that every traveller should get to know and experience,” said PATA CEO Mario Hardy. “The two winning submissions had the most authentic, culturally diverse and innovative offerings but needed the most assistance in helping promote these assets.”

    A dedicated team at TripAdvisor will work with both winners on creating marketing campaigns designed to ensure that they are effectively utilising the digital environment to encourage travellers to visit their destination.

    Martin Verdon-Roe, VP Global Display Sales, TripAdvisor said, “As the world’s largest travel site, we take great pride in promoting wonderful travel destinations to our global travel community. Working with PATA on the PATA CEO Challenge, we are very pleased to be supporting the two winning destinations, Albay, Philippines and Thekkady, Kerala, India, who both have fantastic tourism offerings that we will now work together on to showcase their story to the world.”

    The PATA CEO Challenge 2015, which attracted entries from a broad range of destinations, embraces the uniqueness and diversity of heritages, cultures, customs and natural beauty of many destinations in line with the theme of this year’s PATA Advocacy Dinner in London. It aims to promote and enhance the number of visitors to emerging destinations (regions, states and provinces, and second-tier/third tier towns and cities), and to enhance tourism development in a sustainable manner.

    The two winners will also receive other benefits including a complimentary pass to the PATA Annual Summit 2016 in Guam, USA on May 18-21, free stand space at PATA Travel Mart 2016 in Jakarta, Indonesia from September 7-9 and extensive international brand exposure through a variety of well-established PATA communications channels.- PATA

     

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