June 4: The 'PATA Annual Summit and Adventure Travel Mart 2023' organized by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), an umbrella organization of travel associations in the Asia Pacific region, concluded in the lake city of Pokhara on Friday laying  emphasis on sustainable tourism and digitization.

Renowned speakers from the national and international travel industry attended the summit and discussed issues related to sustainable tourism, crisis management, air safety, social media, adventure and mountain tourism.

This is the third time that Nepal hosted the Adventure Travel Mart and the Pata Annual Summit for the first time.

The best photos related to tourism and adventure taken in different places of the country were also put up for display during a photo exhibition held along with the summit and the travel mart, said Sunil Sharma, central member and program coordinator of NFPJ, the organizer of the photo exhibition.

The four-day event, which kicked off on Tuesday, was jointly organized by the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, Nepal Tourism Board (NTB), PATA, Pokhara Metropolitan City and Pokhara Tourism Council.

During the summit, experts stressed that sustainable tourism is a necessity for economic development.

They argued that digitization should also be taken hand-in-hand for the development and promotion of tourism the changing context of the present-day world. They added that tourism industry across the world is gradually returning to the pre-pandemic situation but is suffering due to the impacts of global economic recession. According to experts, the world's tourism will have to wait for about a year to return to its pre-pandemic condition.