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The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is to establish a Rapid Recovery Task Force to address post-crisis recovery strategies in the face of natural, economic, or political upheaval across countries.
At the PATA 60th Anniversary and Conference in Beijing last month, Bill Calderwood, CEO, PATA, expressed his concern over the natural disasters and other catastrophic events that have recently struck various countries, and the challenges that they posed for the tourism industry.
Destination countries such as Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, China and many parts of the Middle East have all suffered not only from the immediate personal and economic impact, but also the ongoing and residual damage which makes it even harder to restore confidence in the destination as a safe, desirable place to visit.
Said Calderwood: “Such misperceptions are difficult to dispel and an unwelcome barrier to the recovery of the tourism economy. Therefore, we have been asking ourselves what PATA can do to assist our members across all sectors to speed the recovery and minimise the impact of any negative perception.”
The PATA Rapid Recovery Task Force answers this question. This Task Force will be comprised of PATA members who will work on these issues and consequently devise rapid response strategies that will provide the industry with a pro-active action plan, and resources to speed its recovery post crisis.
Bert van Walbeek, a veteran of many crisis management programmes and also the chairman of the PATA Thailand Chapter, will chair the Task Force. Other members will include Mario Hardy, David Beirman, Rick Vogel, Ken Scott, and Kris Lim.
In what has come to be termed as the ‘Beijing Declaration’, Calderwood stated that the industry would need to collaborate better across all sectors in the speedy dissemination of information, which needed to be accurate and concise. He said that PATA would unite with UNWTO, WTTC and other industry bodies in a global alliance, to promote this principle and ensure a consistency of message across the constituencies.
Said Marcio Favilla L de Paula, executive director, United Nations World Tourism Organisation: “The UNWTO endorses the principle of the Beijing Declaration and welcomes the opportunity to collaborate with other key global tourism bodies such as PATA to ensure that we assist the rapid recovery of affected destinations.”
Said David Scowsill, president and chief executive officer, World Travel & Tourism Council: “The WTTC welcomes the opportunity for all global tourism bodies to work together to ensure that complete and accurate information is disseminated across all media and government channels in the event of a natural disaster. We are delighted to work with PATA on this initiative and the implementation of the Beijing Declaration.”
Said Calderwood: “We are delighted that the global tourism bodies will collaborate to address this problem, to ensure that we have a consistent message being delivered to the media and governments on access to and safety in affected regions. Our aim is to speed the recovery through improved and accurate information dissemination.”
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
