PTAA president Patria Chiong leads members onward to tourism industry’s recovery

‘Alone we can do little, with each other we can do a whole lot,” this is the rallying contact of the recently-mounted Philippine Vacation Organizations Association (PTAA) President Patria “Pattie” T. Chiong, as the largest and most prestigious vacation company association in the state gears up to the 30th Vacation Tour Expo 2023 and the 8th International Vacation Trade Expo 2023 from February 3-5, 2023.

“It is without a question that the tourism and journey sector was a person of the toughest strike by the pandemic. By means of the tough instances, PTAA did its greatest to consider treatment of its customers and ongoing to be of provider to the public. We stood collectively united through the good periods, and far more so all through the difficulties brought by pandemic of the former many years. Little by little, the sector is on the road to restoration we have witnessed the return of vacationers and the soaring need for merchandise and companies involving tourism and travel. Now, we have to deal with these new issues.  This is the time we need to function jointly, link arms, and aid 1 a further,” provides Chiong.

One particular of these worries, according to Chiong, is the soaring demand for additional flights for intercontinental and community travel. Though this development comes as a excellent sign of an marketplace in restoration, PTAA, together with other business players, will have to fulfill the growing vacation specifications of the general public. “While we welcome this issue, we are challenged to cope up and we are seeking our extremely most effective to do just that,” suggests Chiong.

In 2023, underneath her leadership, vacationers can also hope new places staying supplied by travel and tour operators beneath PTAA. “We have various familiarization trips lined-up so we can introduce new journeys and packaged tours. We are also concentrating on visa-absolutely free countries like the 10 member nations of the ASEAN. They’re good destinations with fewer headache to the journey organizations and the vacationers, as well,” provides Chiong.

A traveler with a passion herself, the perfectly-traveled Chiong shares that her beloved destinations are Scandinavian countries this kind of as Finland, Denmark and Norway. As a veteran practitioner in the industry, she is currently the Vice President of West Gate Vacation and Excursions Inc. with far more than 40 a long time of encounter in the vacation and tourism sector.

In 1974, Chiong initial labored at Philippine Airlines as Chinese Interpreter and then as airport station supervisor. From 1979-1991, she was manager for China, Hong Kong and Singapore and retired from PAL Specific in 2009 as its Senior Vice President for administration.

Later on, she joined Guatson Intercontinental Travel and Tours in 2010. She is the past president of SKAL Manila and previous international counsellor for SKAL Philippines, an affiliate of SKAL International, a world wide organization of travel and tourism pros. She has successfully received the bid for Manila to host the SKAL Asian Congress in 2015.

Aside from travel and tourism, Chiong is also really energetic in socio-civic activities. She is the previous district secretary for Rotary International District 3830 and earlier president of the Zonta Club of Fort Bonifacio.

She is a recipient of numerous awards as a scholar, airline professional and socio-civic advocate. She hails from Jolo, Sulu and accomplished her studies in Notre Dame of Jolo College and Ateneo de Manila College.

For PTAA, she is the previous Govt Vice President from 2017-2018, Secretary General in 2021, and now a member of the Board of Ethics. She represented PTAA as its official consultant to the Federation of ASEAN Travel Associations (FATA) from 2015-2017, and alternate consultant to ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) from 2015-2017.

Chiong is also a member of the Organizing Committee for PTAA TravelTour Expo 2023.