Kathmandu, June 7: Senior tourism businessman Suman Bikram Pandey has been elected as the Vice President of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) International Headquarters.
Pandey, President of Explore Himalaya Travel and Adventure, became unopposed for the position of Vice-President after Gerald Perez of Guam withdrew his nomination in the election held last March. After the results of the full working committee were submitted by the monitoring committee, it was approved by the general meeting of the board held today on June 7.
Peter Simon from Indonesia has been elected as the President of PATA, Suman Pandey from Nepal as the Vice President, Asian Tralas from Thailand has been elected as the Secretary and Treasurer of the nine-member working committee. Thailand’s Ben Montgomery, India’s Sanjit Jain and Singapore’s Mayur Patel have been elected as members. The term of the new working committee will be until 2026.
It is said that Nepal, which has been a member since 1975, has been represented at this level. Pandey previously held the role of PATA Secretary and Treasurer for two terms from 2020 to 2024.
Established in 1951 in California, USA and headquartered in Bangkok since 1998, PATA has been involved in cooperation with its member countries in the field of mutual tourist exchange or trade expansion for Asia and the Pacific region.
Being a member since 1975, PATA has been actively supporting the tourism potential of Nepal in international marketing and upgrading. In addition, it has been actively supporting for the formation of tourism master plan of Pokhara in 1976, crisis relief and tourism revival program after the 2015 Gorkha earthquake, and adventure tourism fair, Himalayan Travel Mart at various times.
Saying that it is a matter of pride for Nepal to reach the highest position in PATA, Vice President Pandey informed that through PATA, Nepal will be more active in effective promotion of tourism in the international level. He expressed his belief that the organization will play a role in producing skilled and quality manpower for sustainable tourism development as well as improving the quality of tourist services.
Active in the field of tourism for more than 35 years, Pandey is involved in various businesses including trekking, travel, airlines, hotels. He has been the former president of Trekking Agents Association of Nepal (TAAN), former executive committee member of Nepal Tourism Board, former secretary general of Air Service Operators Association, executive member of Nepal Tourism Year 2011 and president of PATA Nepal Chapter.
