Home to pristine rainforests, magnificent hornbills, and the UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy, Kuching. Join us at the PATA Destination Experience Forum & Mart where Sarawak, Malaysia will prove that elevating a destination does not mean compromising its sustainability.

Get ready for a destination tour, educational sessions, an adventure travel mart, and endless networking opportunities to find new inspirations and expand your business reach!

Fully sold-out last year, our popular PATA Destination Experience Forum & Mart is back in Sarawak, Malaysia this year- a vibrant destination full of adventures.

Early-bird PDFM registration now open, will we see you in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia on June 21-23? Secure your early-bird ticket now! Price will go up by 10% after March 15.

Register now: https://www.pata.org/pata-destination-experience-forum.

Kuching is absolutely worth visiting. It's one of the most beautiful cities in Malaysia and also one of the most laid-back, as a result of its location along the banks of the Sarawak River. Cats are everywhere in Kuching from someone happily giving them food scraps at the coffeeshop to giant statues, street art and a museum dedicated to them. Kuching today really is the 'City of Cats'. Colonial-era buildings rub shoulders with modern office towers in Kuching, the largest city on the island of Borneo and the capital of Sarawak state. Kuching is said to be the most multi-racial city in Malaysia. The largest group is the Chinese, who form about 45% of the population. The city is considered one of the cleanest cities in Malaysia and was once voted as one of the world's healthiest cities to live in.

Sarawak is also home to the triumphant Rainforest World Music Festival (RWMF); PDFM delegates will gain complimentary access to the first night of the world-renowned festival.



By leveraging Cvent’s best-in-class technology and all-in-one event management platform, PATA looks to provide a more engaging and immersive attendee experience and facilitate more meaningful member engagement.

Through this partnership, we look forward to further enhancing the value, quality and sustainable growth of travel within the Asia Pacific region.



The partnership will produce two new online learning modules on improving financial literacy and digital competency and cybersecurity, expanding the impacts of TDR within destinations and enabling individuals, businesses, and economies to thrive through the best ways to pay and be paid.

The new courses will be added to PATA's existing TDR Course, available to the public in six languages: English, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer, Thai, and Mandarin Chinese.

Stay informed. Here are this week's updates on travel in Asia Pacific destinations:

https://mailchi.mp/pata/asia-pacific-snapshot-covid-19-update-recovery-dashboard-969148?e=1142cfbf4c

#ChineseTaipei to allow individual HKSAR & Macao, China visitors and ease indoor mask mandate starting Feb 20.

#Korea (ROK) lifted visa curbs on Chinese travellers.

#India lifted COVID-19 testing mandate for passengers from China, Singapore, HKSAR, Korea(ROK), Thailand, and Japan.

#Singapore dropped pre-departure test for non-fully vaxxed travellers.

#Philippines to extend e-visa to travellers from China, Korea (ROK), Japan, and India.

#Maldives tourist arrival for ongoing year surpasses 220K.

#SriLanka tourist arrivals in first week of Feb top 25K.

#Cambodia welcomes 400K int’l tourists YTD, +794% Y-o-Y, including 25K Chinese tourists, +901% Y-o-Y.

#Thailand expected to welcome 30M+ int'l arrivals in 2023.

#Türkiye earthquake unlikely to affect outbound market.



The Hangzhou Asian Games Organizing Committee announced on Feb 12 that 6G technology will be used in the 19th Asian games in Hangzhou, capital of China's eastern province of Zhejiang, aiming to create a high-tech and intelligent sports event.

46 nations and their athletes will participate at the 2023 Asian Games from September 23 to October 8 2023. The Asian Games serves as Paris Olympic qualifiers, and over 5,000 athletes are expected to participate.

There are 40 sports including swimming, archery, athletics, badminton, baseball and softball, basketball, boxing, etc., and 61 disciplines at Asian Games Hangzhou 2022. During 15 competition days, athletes will compete for 482 gold medals.

Basketball is currently the most popular sports discipline in China, and according to some analysts, has already become part of the Chinese culture. China hosted the 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cup. It is the largest spectator sport in China. Soccer, table tennis, and badminton come in next, as the most popular sport.



Food is often used as a means of retaining cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods. The areas in which families live and where their ancestors originated influence food like and dislikes.



In China, food has played an important role in the development of Chinese culture. Every year many traditional festivals and events are celebrated with special foods. Some of these foods have meanings, such as good luck, best wishes, unity, and commemoration. 

Food is central to Chinese culture, and the Spring Festival is a time for sharing traditional delicacies representing good fortune. Certain dishes are eaten during the Chinese New Year for their symbolic meaning.

Lucky foods are served during the 16-day spring festival, especially on Chinese New Year dinner on New Year's Eve, which is believed to bring good luck for the coming year.

Fish — an Increase in Prosperity. In Chinese, "fish" (鱼 Yú /yoo/) sounds like 'surplus' or abundance. Because of this, eating fish for the Lunar New Year symbolizes a surplus of wealth at the end of the year. For the festivities, this Chinese New Year food, usually carp, is most often steamed whole, or put into a stew.

Pork ---- Succulent, rich, and fatty, pork symbolizes wealth and prosperity.

Chinese Dumplings — Wealth. Spring Rolls — Wealth. Longevity Noodles — Happiness and Longevity. Good Fortune Fruit — Fullness and Wealth. Sweet Rice Balls — Family Togetherness. Glutinous Rice Cake — a Higher Income or Position.

Nian gao (or as we simply called it, gao) is a traditional sticky rice cake which represents prosperity. It is considered good luck to eat during the Spring Festival period. The texture of gao is like Japanese mochi although the flavor is quite different. Nian gao 年糕 symbolizes progress, advancement, and growth.

Chinese New Year is an opportunity for feasting with family and friends.

The winery and vineyards are located on East Foothill of Helan Mountain in Ningxia on the 38 Northern Latitude. Sharing the same latitude as French Bordeaux, the region is also known as the “Bordeaux of the East” and a World Winery Golden Belt. The pristine environment is far from pollution in well-preserved nature that is increasingly popular with winemakers.

The Helan Mountains, frequently called Alashan Mountains, are an isolated desert mountain range forming the border of Inner Mongolia’s Alxa League and Ningxia. To the west lies the extremely arid Tengger Desert, while to the east is an irrigated area beside the Yellow River, in which lie the cities of Yinchuan (capital of Ningxia) and Shizuishan. Helan Mountain is 2,000 to 2,500 meters (6,562 to 8,200 feet) above sea level, and spans 200 km (125 miles) from north to south.

Chateau Changyu Moser XV in Ningxia, China

With the increasing popularity of Ningxia wines, several large Chinese wine companies including Changyu and Dynasty Wine have begun development in the western region of the province. As a rising wine region star, Ningxia has won over 700 International Awards in recent years.

The quality is a given, and once a year they can improve upon it, but what they are working on, is to create a style of wine that is unmistakably Ningxia. If you smell a glass of Bordeaux, you know it is a Bordeaux. What the Chinese are working on is something similar for Ningxia, so in 10 years’ time, when people open a bottle, not just from the Chateau, but also from the other wineries, people should know that this distinctive wine is from Ningxia. For example, the Chinese are the only people in the world doing a white Cabernet in stainless steel, it is unique, and people like it.



Carnival in Rijeka traces back beyond the Middle Ages to pagan tribes. Slavic folktales fuse with both Venetian and Austrian carnival traditions, making it one of the most well-known carnivals in Europe.

The annual Rijeka Carnival is the biggest in Croatia and one of the biggest in Europe. Each year, the new generation of carnival participants carry its long tradition and the event now welcomes over 100 groups with a five-figure number of participants. The Rijeka Carnival has been voted one of the 500 most important events in Europe! 

The ‘crown jewel of the carnival festivities’ is the International Carnival Parade, that was on February 19, 2023. The parade features hundreds of floats, thousands of masks, and countless visitors from Croatia and beyond. Another popular event is the Children’s Carnival Parade. The Children’s Parade welcomes the youngest generations from Croatia and abroad; who take part in a river of masks and ensure that the carnival tradition will never perish.

There is also a long tradition of carnival at Kvarner, especially in Lošinj. The carnival madness traditionally start with the handover of town keys.  Lošinj Carnival is more than 2 decades old. 

The biggest day of the Mardi Gras 2023 celebration in New Orleans was observed on February 21, 2023. Fat Tuesday was the last day of the Carnival season as it always falls the day before Ash Wednesday. It is also called Shrove Tuesday, Carnival Tuesday, or Pancake Tuesday, depending on where the celebration is taking place.

Mardi Gras is synonymous with Carnival celebrations in New Orleans, Venice, and Rio. The day is marked in similarly festive fashion around the world in countries with large Roman Catholic populations. What began as a holiday rooted in religious tradition has become a cultural phenomenon.

Elizabeth Chin

Executive Director

NY PATA

Email: newyorkpata@gmail.com

https://newyorkpata.org