PATA abolishes its Office of Strategy Management

BANGKOK, Thailand (eTN) – It was certainly a surprising move.

BANGKOK, Thailand (eTN) – It was certainly a surprising move. Last Wednesday, a Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) official media release revealed that PATA was going to abolish its strategic unit. In its latest newsletter posted on August 2, PATA Interim CEO Bill Calderwood and current Chairman Hiran Cooray announced that the 60-year-old association is taking steps to restructure and move towards a better business model.

The Office of Strategy Management, headed by PATA veteran and Deputy CEO John Koldowski, will be outsourced. Mr. Koldowski had been with PATA for 15 years and was the driving force behind the build-up of statistic and data resources for the association. PATA has today what is probably the most comprehensive database about the Asia-Pacific region. There were already rumors for approximately a year that Mr. Koldowski mulled out the idea to see his position outsourced as it would provide increasing flexibility to him and his team of researchers.

โ€œThis is an exciting development,โ€ he said, โ€œIโ€™ll be moving into a less up-front and visible role, but with a much broader brief, so that I can concentrate on bringing better information and business intelligence to the membership.

โ€œThere is a lot of research work which could be done to strengthen the role of PATA. It is sometimes frustrating to see that things are not moving quick enough. Outsourcing the position is likely to reinforce the efficiency of PATA intelligence resources.โ€

Research colleagues, Kris Lim, Director of the Strategic Intelligence Centre, and Rochana Maiyaroj, Assistant Director of Business Services, will also leave their positions, while the five staff working within the unit will join other departments.

Mr. Koldowski is adamant that the research work of the soon-to-be abolished Office of Strategy Management remains an essential tool for PATA. The previous PATA Deputy CEO will, in fact, be contracted for most of PATA future research work, with data and information being supplied on a monthly basis. The framework to the future outsourcing work is already taking shape with Mr. Koldowski promising to deliver the same quality of information to PATA members or even better.

As Mr. Calderwood explained, PATA will leverage that technology and expand the research capabilities of the association by forming a virtual worldwide research team from various business disciplines. Changes wished by Mr. Calderwood will also include the introduction of PATAโ€™s Travel Intelligence Graphic Architecture (TIGA) system, which allows members to see the latest travel statistics in real time online. Mr. Calderwood said that over the coming months, this transition in the PATA business model will also see changes to its overseas representation in Europe and North America.

According to the Bangkok-based travel newsletter TTR, the PATA Interim CEO wants to also outsource, in the near future, the events department headed by another PATA veteran, Sheila Leong.

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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