PATA Elects Two New Members to Executive Board

Bangkok (Thailand) – June 25, 2015 – The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is pleased to announce the election of two new members to the PATA Executive Board, effective immediately. Ms Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes, Director, Macau Government Tourist Office, and Mr Stewart Moore, Chief Executive Officer, EarthCheck, have been appointed to the PATA Executive Board as non-voting members at the recent PATA Executive Board meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on June 19, 2015.

On the appointment, PATA Chairman Kevin Murphy said, “The addition of both Helena and Stewart add great experience and diversity to an already highly engaged and knowledgeable PATA Executive Board. I look forward to working with both of the them to further expand the Association’s activities in the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region.”

In addition to the appointment to the PATA Executive Board, Ms Fernandes has also been appointed Chairman of the PATA Nominating Committee.

Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes came on board the Marketing Department of the Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) in 1988, and throughout the years organised many local and overseas tourism exhibitions, conferences, seminars, marketing, and promotional activities of different scale. She became one of the two Deputy Directors in September of 1998, where she continues to be highly involved in the marketing and promotion of Macau SAR as a tourism destination. Ms. Fernandes was appointed as Director of MGTO in December of 2012.

She concurrently serves as Coordinator of the Tourism Crisis Management Office of the Macau SAR Government and is member of the Tourism Development Committee, MICE Development Committee, Economic Development Committee, Cultural Advisory Committee, Creative Industries Committee, Urban Planning Committee, among others, of the Macau SAR Government.

Stewart Moore is one of the Asia Pacific’s most experienced planning and destination management consultants. He has over 25 years of experience in a wide range of disciplines from business and strategic planning, tourism destination management, sustainability, and risk management. He is an NEIS accredited business consultant and has extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and the facilitation of business and community forums. He served on the Tourism Forecasting Council of Australia for 10 years and was Chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Chapter in Queensland for 8 years. He is a member of the PATA Foundation and PATA’s Sustainability and Social Responsibility Committee, and been a consultant on three PATA Task Forces including the recent Macau task force in 2013.

Mr Moore is the founder and CEO of EarthCheck, Chairman of the National Centre for Studies in Travel and Tourism and Executive Director for the APEC International Centre for Sustainable Tourism. He is an active board director on a wide range of both public and private tourism, research and development boards. In 2013 Mr Moore was named in the Global list of the top 100 sustainability professionals (ABC Carbon Singapore). He has a Masters of Regional Science specialising in tourism planning and sustainable development, a Bachelor of Regional and Town Planning (Honours) and has completed postgraduate studies in Finance and Investment from the Financial and Services Institute of Australia (FINSIA) and Conservation and Heritage from the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, U.K.

About PATA
Founded in 1951, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is a not-for profit association that is internationally acclaimed for acting as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its member organisations, comprising 87 government, state and city tourism bodies, 25 international airlines, airports and cruise lines, 61 educational institutions, and hundreds of travel industry companies in Asia Pacific and beyond. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 43 local PATA chapters worldwide. The chapters organise travel industry training and business development events. Their grassroots activism underpins PATA’s membership of the Global Travel Association Coalition (GTAC), which includes ACI, CLIA, IATA, ICAO, WEF, UNWTO and the WTTC. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing, Sydney, Dubai, and London. Visit www.PATA.org.

Media Contact:
PATA
Paul Pruangkarn
Manager – Communications
Bangkok, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 658 2000
E-mail: Communications@PATA.org