President of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association Matt Gibson is headlining the second day of the ongoing Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) Academy programme in Maldives.
The first PATA Academy human capacity building programme held in the Maldives is themed ‘Exploring the Art of Storytelling’, and kicked off Wednesday at Bandos Island Resort with 45 participants comprising travel writers, marketers and educators.
Organiser Maldives Association of Travel Agents and Tour Operators (MATATO) said Matt Gibson is conducting sessions on the final day of the two-day programme.
Matt Gibson is an adventure travel writer and photographer, and an award-winning blogger. He is the President of the Professional Travel Bloggers Association, and serves as the CEO of Upthink, an agency that helps travel companies develop their content marketing by working with travel bloggers.
On the first day of the programme, sessions were conducted by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Kyle Sandilands, Head of Growth at Triip.me Trevor Weltman, and Founder and Head of Product at Scott Experience Design Dung ‘Mos’ Dang.
PATO CEO Dr Mario Hardy also addressed the participants.
The programme being conducted in the Maldives is based on the successful PATA Academy event held in December at the association’s Engagement Hub in Bangkok, and delivers an intensive and interactive training programme incorporating a series of classroom interactions conducted by leading travel industry experts coupled with practical activities, group assignments and networking opportunities.
Participants gain hands-on experience by working both individually and on team-based projects where presentations are shared at the end of the programme. From this intensive high-value training, participants take home practical marketing strategies to be applied and implemented in their respective organisations, including:
- Generating realistic, narrative-driven user stories
- Choosing the most effective medium
- Learning to ask the right questions
- Identifying elements of powerful stories
- Communicating and presenting ideas well to influence and inspire actions
The PATA Academy capacity building programme is the association’s in-house outreach initiative for Human Capital Development (HCD) focused on the tourism industry. Leveraging PATA’s network of talented industry leaders worldwide, the programme designs and implements customised training workshops for diverse organisations, including government agencies, non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and private sector businesses.
The training is delivered through innovative adult education learning techniques, including case studies, group exercises, group discussions, instructor presentations and site visits. The facilitators bring knowledge, experience and expertise from a wide range of business sectors and drawn from PATA’s extensive and established network in the tourism industry and beyond.