Prudence Lui, Hong Kong (2010-04-01)

THE HONG KONG Association of Travel Agents (HATA) is hoping to drive discussion with the theme ‘A world without travel agents’ for this year’s overseas annual conference in Singapore, its first visit in about 15 years.

Organisers of the 38th HATA Annual Overseas Convention slated for June 25-27, 2010 hope the conference theme will help stimulate discussion and an exchange of views on the challenging and changing business environment.

Convention chairman Jason Wong said the aim was not to frighten their members. “We chose this theme because we want to reawaken ourselves about the values of travel agents and we want to take this opportunity to facilitate the idea.”

Wong said HATA picked Singapore over other locations for clear reasons.

“We considered a few locations but Singapore is the best choice this time because the city is obviously the highlight of Asia this year. With a newly opened themepark, the IRs, new hotels, conventions sites and attractions, it is definitely time for our HATA members to revisit the Lion City.”