Mario Hardy: “Responsible Tourism a key agenda for PATA in 2015

In a candid and insightful conversation, Mario Hardy, CEO of Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) described some of the imperative aspects of adventure tourism and responsible traveling at Thimphu, Bhutan. Mario Hardy was appointed as the CEO of PATA on November 1st, 2014 after he joined the association as the COO on January 15th, 2014. Mario Hardy, in this exclusive interview described how intense his journey was and how demanding his job is becoming in the recent times. With a strict calendar and a number of agendas lined up, his focus remains on the operations, web aspects, social media campaigns and the systems of the association to bring it at par with the recent travel industry. He described how the website of PATA was revamped and what made him choose the newsletter service to spread the good work done. In this candid interview, he spoke about his thoughts on the subject of sustainable tourism and responsible tourism. He plans to complement the industry with superior content in the near future and described how global organizations and associations are coming together to enhance the travel and tourism industry worldwide. Mario Hardy, an adventure traveler by heart described how he and his wife enjoy traveling to not so popular destinations. He described how his trip to a rural part of Cambodia changed his perspective of traveling. Mr. Hardy, a true global citizen and over 10 years of experience in Asia described how important the upcoming PATA Travel Mart 2015 in Bangalore is going to be. Development of local business and pushing tourists to the outskirts of the main tourism hubs is something that he believes will change the outlook of the industry.