Kindred Associations give tourism, travel and hospitality professional associations the opportunity to present ideas on how their organisations might work more closely together in cooperative and collaborative education and research.

Time was allocated in the 2006 CAUTHE conference in Melbourne for the ‘Kindred Associations’ session. This session gave tourism, travel and hospitality professional associations the opportunity to present ideas on how these organisations might work more closely together in cooperative and collaborative education and research.

Organisations that were represented were Council of Australian University Tourism and Hospitality Education (CAUTHE), Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), Council for Hospitality Management Education (CHME), Association for Tourism in Higher Education (ATHE), Asia Pacific Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (APacCHRIE), International Society of Travel and Tourism Educators (ISSTE), International Association of Scientific Experts in Tourism (AIEST), Asia-Pacific Education and Training Institutes in Tourism (APETIT).

Presentations were made by:

• Dr Stephen Ball, Sheffield Hallam University (CHME Chair)
• Associate Professor Manat Chaisawat, Prince of Songkla University (representing APacCHRIE)
• Ms Jenny Davies, University of South Australia (CAUTHE Chair)
• Mr Chris Flynn, Pacific Asia Travel Association (representing PATA)
• Associate Professor Gayle Jennings, Griffith University (on behalf of ISTTE)
• Professor Christian Laesser, University of St. Gallen (representing AIEST)
• Mr Michael Pearlman, Victoria University (representing APETIT)
• Professor John Tribe, University of Surrey (ATHE Chair)

Those who presented agreed that continued contact and dialogue would be valuable. If their associations agreed they would:

• Put links to the Kindred Association websites on their homepage
• Publicise Kindred Association conferences via their websites
• Make a formal time available at their conferences for a ‘Kindred Association’ meeting
• Continue to communicate via email addresses

This session was successful in advancing the collaboration and cooperation of professional associations in tourism and hospitality. Thanks go to Paul Whitelaw and Brian King for organising a most successful conference and for bringing the meeting together. Professor Brian King from Victoria University chaired the session.