PATA upgrades travelwithpata.com.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) today launched an additional 21 destination guides on its new consumer Web site www.TravelWithPATA.com.

With text from world-renowned travel information provider, Lonely Planet, the latest 21 country guides cover destinations within the PATA region: Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, DPR Korea, Fiji, Guam, Maldives, Mexico, Micronesia, Myanmar, Nepal, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Samoa, Sri Lanka, Tahiti, Timor-Leste, Tonga, USA and Vietnam.

The Association is also asking all interested members to provide travel deals to the site. Since the launch of the site on August 14, only PATA members that supported Project Phoenix were able to offer travel deals and promotions on the travel portal. This option is now open to all members of our Association.

The Web site, built by Open World, delivers hotel and airline travel bargains in its travel deals section, and allows visitors to view Asia Pacific maps, exchange rates and time zones. The travel advisories section encourages visitors to read travel advisories from a variety of sources.

PATA President and CEO, Mr. Peter de Jong, said: "TravelWithPATA allows us to reach out to the end user and deliver an impressive combination of factual travel information and special travel offers on behalf of PATA members."

TravelWithPATA.com is currently being promoted in global print and television advertising campaigns. CNN, TIME, FORTUNE, National Geographic Channel, BBC World, A1 Channel, Newsweek and four travel trade publications have pledged their support to the Project Phoenix campaign.

Thirty-nine destinations are now featured on the site and a further nine destination guides will be uploaded within a month. For each destination guide there are sections describing history, culture, transport, activities, attractions, travel advisories, travel tips and costs.

The country guides of the 15 destinations that supported Project Phoenix were launched five weeks ago: Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, Hawaii, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea (ROK), Macau, Malaysia, Northern Marianas, Palau, Philippines, Singapore, Chinese Taipei (Taiwan), plus those of China (PRC), Japan and Thailand.

ABOUT PATA'S PROJECT PHOENIX
On June 6, 2003 the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) launched Project Phoenix, a global consumer communications campaign to re-invigorate travel and tourism in Asia Pacific. The initiative was in response to the battering the travel industry and economies in the region had taken due to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Bali bombs and SARS.

At the time, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) report suggested that 6.5 million jobs were lost in the global travel industry in 2001 and 2002. The ILO had forecast that a further 5 million jobs would be at risk unless the travel industry recovered.

Through Project Phoenix, PATA is leading Asia Pacific's tourism come-back.