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The travel industry has been demonstrating the importance that it places on the issue of climate change in the far east at an event in Bangkok, Thailand.

More than 230 delegates representing a range of organisations met in the Thai capital for the conference, which began on 29 April.

One of the speakers at the event was the outgoing chairman of the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Brian Deeson.

Mr Deeson welcomed industry leaders to the Centara Grand and Bangkok Convention Centre at CentralWorld, where he described climate change as 'a deal breaker'.

He added: 'Our customers are the issue; and they are not happy. They believe we've been apathetic on this issue. Or worse, that we've been 'in denial'.

'So today PATA is leading the way for us to be accountable to our customers, and to ourselves, to help us stand up and say: "We are taking this issue seriously", to demonstrate that we are working together to share the best solutions around, and to collaborate on those we haven't yet discovered.'

PATA recently claimed that a number of the operators in the regional travel industry are 'waking up' to the idea of carbon-neutral tourism, with hotels and resorts adopting business methods that have a focus on sustainability and environmental responsibility.

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