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Coronavirus: Pata sets up crisis resource and tourism recovery initiatives

Crisis resource and tourism recovery initiatives have been created by the Pacific Asia Travel Association in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The unified platform is designed to provide reliable and up-to-date policy statements, authoritative information and tourism indicators from around the globe.

The aim is to provide a global centralised repository of reliable information for users based on their needs, Pata said.

The association is asking governments, and international and national organisations to seek assistance in collecting information on aid and relief packages available to businesses in their respective destinations.

Past chairman Sarah Mathews said, “The travel and tourism industry has weathered many different types of crises; however, the current unprecedented pandemic poses a severe threat to the entire industry impacting the economic livelihood of millions of people around the world.

“According to the World Travel & Tourism Council up to 75 million jobs are at immediate risk globally, while travel and tourism GDP loss to the world economy is up to US$2.1 trillion.

“Therefore, I felt it was critical that we brought together global crisis experts to help create a long term crisis resource centre.

“The centre will be a unified source of information for travel and tourism organisations to find solutions to the current crisis.”

She added: “We are launching with two key areas of focus; one is to house all the efforts across the globe by governments who have and are providing aid, relief, and support for their industry stakeholders within the resource centre.

“Secondly, we are asking for the industry to complete a business impact survey in order to use those results to request for more government support for our industry.

“Whilst the current focus is on Covid-19 as a public health issue, the goal is to establish a long term resource centre for the industry to utilise when we face any future crisis.

“The travel and tourism industry is incredibly resilient, and travel will continue to inspire millions of people across the world.”

Pata vice chairman Soon Hwa Wong said: “In crisis management, we need to have the latest status of the situation. For post crisis recovery planning, we need reliable data, updates and developing trends at our disposal.

“Timing is everything especially when it relates to the execution of recovery efforts. Too early could result in a complete waste of resources. Too late could risk being one of the last off the starting block.

“The Pata Tourism Recovery Monitor is designed to be the go-to resource for strategic tourism planners and decision makers to keep fully abreast of the fast changing environment.

“Pata has brought together an array of experts and partners to share valuable data, content and trends of leading tourism indicators to help us spot ‘green shoots’ as soon as they start to appear.”

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