PTM show is losing its shine

Pacific Asia Travel Association claims its annual travel mart, due to open in Hangzhou China, early next week, should generate at least US$850,000 in business contracted during the three-day show.

It bases the estimate on a survey conducted at the close of last year’s show held in India.

Addressing a media briefing this morning, the association’s events director, Sheila Leong, said the show offered an “unparallel networking and business contracting opportunity” for the 284 organisations categorised as sellers and 275 buyer companies.

She didn’t have the business contracted estimate handy. It required a telephone call to her office, in response to media questions, to deliver an estimate that claims the PTM generates US$850,000 in business contracts over two and half days.

Despite the event’s apparent success, official Pata documents state the show is losing revenue, mainly derived from booth rentals and sponsorships. Based on reports to the Pata board, last April, the show is unlikely to meet its sales target with lower buyer and seller registrations.

An indicator on how far the show has slipped is seen in the official statistics for the 2007 event hosted by Bali in Indonesia. It attracted 343 buyer companies from 49 countries and 376 seller organisers from 38 countries. This year, seller ogranisations are down 24.46% and buyer companies  down 19.82%. 

The PTM faces long-term issues. It relies on its member companies to support the show on top of paying very expensive membership dues. Show fees for non-members are not competitive when compared with other shows such as ITB Asia and ATF.

Pata’s events director confirmed that 85% of the seller companies registered for the travel mart were members, a profile that should be a source of concern for travel contracting managers who attend a mart in Asia to network with the widest possible audience. Pata membership has declined from a height of nearly 2,000 in 2003 to less than 900 paying members today, reducing the pool  that the PTM can tap considerably.

Membership is  also dominated by hotels, government promotional officers and destination management companies (inbound travel agents).

This is reflected in the PTM seller breakdown –- 38% are hotels, 29% DMCs and 20% government tourist offices. The latter have nothing to sell, or contract.

Travel technology represents just 1%, airlines 2%, attractions 2% and cruises 2% of booth rentals.

Three Pata members were enlisted at the media briefing to tout the PTM benefits. They were evasive, or unable, to offer even a hint of how the show contributed to their annual sales.

One of the three members was Fair House and Villa and Spa director of sales and marketing, Suparerk Thongsuk, who is taking his resort to the PTM for the first time.

Describing the resort as an award winning SME venture on Samui Island, he admitted it would cost him at least Bt300,000 to join the show –-booth fees, decoration, accommodation, air fares and expenses.

To meet the same buyers it would have cost him less than Bt50,000 to join Thailand’s annual TTM Plus show, held earlier in the year, in Bangkok.

Admitting there are challenges on the horizon, Ms Leong announced she has created a working group known as the “PTM strategic review committee” to look at the future of the mart.

The committee is made up of the PTM founder, Gerald Picolla, who lives in retirement in the US, the former CEO of Reed Exhibitions, Tom Nutley, who managed the PTM event and relinquished it after five years of losses and managing director of TTG Media, Darren Ng, who runs a successful exhibition company that manages travel shows that compete head on with Pata for the identical seller audience.

“This is not a conflict of interest for Pata,” said Ms Leong. “The committee members will not stand to gain from advising us on how to improve the PTM. They are association members who will consider Pata’s best interests.”