The PATA Youth Symposium, hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kazakh Tourism National Company and M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, took place on the first day of the PATA Travel Mart 2019 on Wednesday, September 18 at the M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.
Organised by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Human Capital Development Committee under the theme ‘From Beginning to End: How Stories Connect Us’, the highly successful event welcomed over 190 participants from 11 educational institutions in Almaty and Nur-Sultan, as well as international students from Malaysia, India and Canada.
Following welcome speeches from Kairat Sadvakasov, Deputy Chairman – Kazakh Tourism; Dr. Mario Hardy, CEO – PATA; Galym Makhmejanov, PhD, Director of the Qazaq Institute of Development Studies (QIDS) in the Higher School of Economics, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University JSC, and Stephanie Wells, Chair – PATA Human Capital Development Committee and Chair – School of Tourism Management, Capilano University, Canada, the keynote address was delivered by Creative Producer and Film Director, Vasyl Khomko, from the Ukraine.
Mr Khomko spoke about one of his most unique and successful video projects “#nevertravelled Story from Kazakhstan” that featured ordinary grandmothers from small Kazakh villages that had never travelled abroad. The video captured the perspectives of the women as they travelled around the world and why it mattered to them and to the industry.
Jason Lin, Chief of Talent – Talent Basket, Xiamen (China) and San Francisco (USA), shared his story, experience and strategy of developing tourism talent, acquiring cultural knowledge, and cultivating a global professional network to achieve his dream career goals.
Rika Jean-François, Commissioner ITB Corporate Social Responsibility, Competence Centre Travel & Logistics – ITB Berlin, talked about the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the world from ecology to the social environment. She stressed the need for the next generation of young tourism professionals to be advocates for positive change.
The event closed with two interactive roundtable discussions that empowered the students to use the tips and techniques they learned from the day’s speakers.
In recent years the PATA Human Capital Development Committee has organised successful educational events at various institutions including UCSI University Sarawak Campus (April 2010), Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) (September 2010), Beijing International Studies University (April 2011), Taylor’s University, Kuala Lumpur (April 2012), Lyceum of the Philippines University, Manila (September 2012), Thammasat University, Bangkok (April 2013), Chengdu Polytechnic, Huayuan Campus, China (September 2013), Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai Campus, China, (May 2014), Royal University of Phnom Penh (September 2014), Sichuan Tourism School, Chengdu (April 2015), Christ University, Bangalore (September 2015), University of Guam, USA (May 2016), President University, BSD-Serpong (September 2016), Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management (May 2017), Institute for Tourism Studies (IFT) (September 2017), Gangneung-Wonju National University, Korea (ROK) (May 2018), Langkawi, Malaysia (September 2018), and Cebu, Philippines (May 2019).
.jpg){kind=tracking}
