The PATA today signed a new agreement to help significantly reduce the carbon footprint of its landmark new event, the PATA CEO Challenge: Confronting Climate Change.

The agreement was signed with EC3 Global, managers of the Green Globe brand.

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