Hyderabad, The Pacific Asia Travel Association Travel Mart 2008 (PTM08), the premier event of the travel and trade industry, began here Wednesday with speakers warning that natural and man-made calamities would impact on the tourism industry.

The PTM08, being attended by almost 1,100 delegates from across the region, began at a time when the turmoil in US economy and terror attacks in India have cast their shadow on the travel plans of tourists.

As many as 374 global buyers from 234 organizations of 56 countries and 715 sellers from 301 organizations from 38 countries are attending the three-day meet. Several countries and organizations have put up their pavilions and stalls over the 3,700 square metre space.

PATA president and CEO Peter de Jong warned that that man-made calamities would have an impact on the tourism industry. "Regardless of destinations, there will always be an impact of the man-made or indeed natural tragedies," he said.

Referring to the various problems ranging from the terrorism, to the tsunami and bird flu outbreak the Asia Pacific region faced in recent years, he said: "The great story of Asia Pacific is that regardless of these incidents throughout our recent history, the growth continues. The rebound of tourism is phenomenal. We are ready to cope with them and have become more resilient about them".

He said the desire of the people, specially first time travellers, remains high and it was a great signal for the future.

Peter de Jong said it was very early to say what impact the recent developments in the American markets would have.

"As the savings, livelihood and employment of the people are affected by the economic developments which are taking place now, they will have an impact on the choice of travel and amount of investments the people are ready to make in travel," he maintained.

Indian Tourism and Culture minister Ambika Soni said that global travellers were still not deterred by terror attacks. "They have decided that no man-made tragedy is going to deter him or her from travelling and bonding with other citizens of different countries," she said.

She appealed to to other countries to "bear with us while we are overcoming as quickly as we can and not to issue advisories as they have a long term and lingering effect."

She said that while PATA had predicted a six percent increase, India was recording almost 12 to 14 percent increase in the inbound tourist flow despite natural and man- made calamities.

She said that India and other developing countries were against the idea of curtailing long haul flights in the name of fighting global warming.

Explaining why Hyderabad was chosen as the venue for the meet, de Jong said the city was an example of a destination that many of the delegates were not aware of.

"One of the missions of PATA is to promote destinations both known and already on the tourist maps and those which are emerging and new. We felt this was a great opportunity to highlight and draw attention of the world to Hyderabad, which has made such great strides in the recent years in tourism," he said.

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