A Student Chapter Leader's Experience of the PATA Youth Symposium at PAS 2021
By Prerna Kiran Hatyal, Chairperson of PATA India Christ University Student Chapter
The PATA Youth Symposium was part of the three-day PATA Annual Summit (PAS) 2021 held online from April 27-29, 2021. Out of the 3000+ PATA Annual delegates who came from 90+ destinations around the world, 2000+ delegates attended various sessions at the PATA Youth Symposium. This gave scope for PATA Youth attendees to dive deep into the minds of tourism leaders and gain their insights on travel’s critical issues.
While past PATA Youth Symposiums have been held in-person, this year’s event was adapted to an online mode in the time of the pandemic. Providing enormous possibilities, it was hosted in four parts:
Part 1: Tourism as a Positive Catalyst
Part 2: Mentorship Session
Part 3: Scaling up Your Impact - SDG Workshop
Part 4: Student Roundtable Discussion
The ‘Tourism as a Positive Catalyst’ panel discussion session addressed the audience on how the industry has been remodelling its marketing techniques. Pauline Yang (PATA Youth Member), mentioned that we need to ‘champion the change,’ as today’s industry leaders are responsible for helping the industry survive and investing in massive educational partnerships in order to regain the lost young talents from the industry.
A key highlight of the Symposium was that it provided students and young tourism professionals an opportunity to interact with senior industry leaders and fellow student leaders during the Mentorship Session.
Editor’s note: see the full list of Mentors from this session here >
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Workshop was led by Roy Jantzen (Professor, Capilano University). He encouraged us to rethink our actions towards our natural environment by helping us reflect on every decision we make. These decisions will contribute towards a specific impact on the future of our planet, so we need to understand that every one of us is a sustainability change agent. We can start by trying to connect and identify which aspect of the SDGs we support and can participate towards achieving.
The PATA Student Chapter community witnessed its fullest representation of its international community, as 26 of our 29 PATA Student Chapters spoke during the Student Chapter Roundtable Discussion! Student Chapter Leaders took turns sharing updates about how their Student Chapter was able to adapt to the digital space, as well as the challenges of having their team spread across their countries, or even based on different continents. It was empowering that Student Chapter Leaders could come together to discuss and solve critical management issues for their Student Chapters, as everyone focused on transforming their knowledge and awareness into action!
Prerna’s journey with PATA
As the saying goes: always look at the bright side. The PATA Youth Symposium gave hope to thousands of young professionals who gathered to gain insights concerning their chances to sustain in the industry and the issues of sustainability that we still overlook. Overall, the event emphasised how every individual can respond to issues beyond COVID-19 and realise that this pandemic is an opportunity for the student community to collaborate on topics related to the industry and the world as a whole.
For me, a key takeaway from the sessions has been the art of storytelling. They can be translated into the 6 E’s of engagement, which will help me become a better leader in the future ahead. They are as follows:
Ease: make it easier for every member to find and access resources.
Elevate: help members connect with each other in the community.
Empower: motivate everyone to be vocal about their thoughts.
Entertain: create meaningful and memorable experiences/contents/events.
Educate: educate on the relevant topics and even those which aren’t discussed.
Entice: drive everyone to take action.
I know that I have transformed into a more confident and outspoken individual over the last three years with the PATA Youth community. In emerging as a young Student Leader, I have also contributed to the growth of this community. And as such, my wish for PATA is that it can continue to host events in a hybrid model, as it would allow more students to join without worrying about financial implications as a barrier.
If you would like to know more about PATA’s initiatives for the PATA Youth community, please contact YTP@pata.org
Registration to PAS 2021 was complimentary for all delegates through the support of Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority (Platinum Sponsor), Global Tourism Economic Forum (Gold Sponsor), Airbnb (Official Debate Topic Partner), Twenty31 Consulting (Session Sponsor), and iFREE Group (Sponsor). We are grateful for the support of BBC (Media Partner), eGlobal Travel Media, Profi.Travel, Travel Daily News, Travelindex, TTG Asia, TTN Worldwide, and TTR Weekly (Supporting Media Partners), as well as our PATA Youth Sponsors, Guam Visitors Bureau, iFREE Group, MAP 2 Ventures, SIGMUND, and Talent Basket.
Read the PAS 2021 Conference recap: Post-Event Recap
Rewatch the PAS 2021 sessions: PATA Annual Summit 2021 Playlist
Visit the PAS 2021 event page: PAS 2021
