Travelmedia Launches Web Newscasts for Pacific Asia Travel Association

PATA Becomes First Major Travel Organization to Offer Regularly-Scheduled Streaming Audio and Video

Press Release
July 12, 2001
MILL VALLEY, A -- Travelmedia (www.travelmedia.com), a leading producer of marketing and editorial media for the travel industry and international organizations, yesterday announced the debut of PATAradio, a regularly-scheduled travel industry web newscast for the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). The newscast debuted July 3rd on PATAnet (www.pata.org), the association's combination travel industry and consumer web site, and features travel industry news plus videos on destinations in the Pacific and Asia and features on sustainable tourism, an area in which PATA is a worldwide leader.

PATA is a not-for-profit association of tourism industry leaders with a membership of more than 2,000 organizations including governments, destinations, airlines and cruise lines, hotel chains, tour operators, travel agencies, educational institutions, financial and consultancy services and media. ``We are proud to be the first travel organization to offer regularly scheduled newscasts on the web,'' says PATA CEO Joseph A. McInerney.

``PATAradio will serve two audiences, the travel industry and consumers, much the way PATAnet does,'' says Russell Johnson, president of Travelmedia. ``We aim to make PATAradio a convenient, vital news service and a treasure trove of media for the Pacific-Asia region.''

PATAradio will bring bi-weekly newscasts plus instant updates of breaking stories to the desktops, laptops and eventually the cell phones and PDAs of busy travel industry executives who do not have time to plough through dozens of publications and web sites. ``It will also be delivered via e-mail,'' according to Johnson. ``Subscribers can click on an e-mail link and listen to the news while checking the rest of their messages.''

About the Pacific Asia Travel Association

Founded in Hawaii in 1951 as a not-for-profit organization, PATA is an ``Association of Leaders for Leaders'' with a membership of nearly 2,000 organizations including governments and destinations, airlines and cruise lines, hotels, tour operators, travel agencies, educational institutions, financial and consultancy services and media. Augmenting the effort of PATA is an international network of chapters, in 80+ locations worldwide, providing an unmatched sales force of over 17,000 travel industry professionals which promote PATA-member destinations, products and services.

About Travelmedia

Since 1982, Travelmedia (www.travelmedia.com) has been one of the travel industry's top developers of marketing and editorial video, web and other media content working in 33 countries and hundreds of destinations. Its clients include international organizations such as the United Nations and the Pacific Asia Travel Association, government tourism offices, airlines, cruise lines, tour operators, hotels, software developers and TV and radio networks. Travelmedia publishes The Connected Traveler (www.connectedtraveler.com) magazine, one of the first and most honored travel magazines on the World Wide Web.

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Contact: 

     Travelmedia
     Russell Johnson, 415/389-8503
     rjohnson@travelmedia.com
     http://www.travelmedia.com
            or
     PATA Headquarters, Bangkok
     Ken Scott, (62 2) 658 2000
     ken@pata.th.com
     http://www.pata.org