PATA Recovery Advisory Group Ready to Assist Destinations in Need
Bangkok (Thailand) – September 25, 2018 (travelindex.com) – With the frequency and severity of natural disasters occurring around the world, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is ready to assist affected destinations around the world as they look to quickly rebuild and recover.
The PATA Recovery Advisory Group assists member destinations in identifying key challenges facing the sector and providing turnaround strategies during periods of sudden decline in tourism arrivals and earnings as a result of natural or man-made disasters.
“The effects of global warming have only increased the severity and frequency of devastating weather events around the world and we have already seen this take place in India, USA, Puerto Rico, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, and Macao, China, to name a few. As PATA has often talked about the responsible development of travel and tourism in the Asia Pacific region, it is our duty to provide assistance when needed,” said PATA CEO Dr. Mario Hardy. “The PATA Recovery Advisory Group provides an opportunity for destinations to tap into the expertise of our expansive network of members and industry colleagues and leverage their support as they look to recover quickly from incidents beyond their control.”
The members of the PATA Recovery Advisory Group are formed on a skill-based volunteering basis, leveraging the specialized experience and expertise of individual PATA members to spearhead recovery efforts in the fields of marketing, branding and media, budgeting and financing, and safety and security.
Previous recovery efforts have been successful in such destinations as Nepal, after the devastating earthquake in April 2015, and in Bali, after the horrendous act of violence in 2002.
“Climate change is real and those that disagree are blind to events happening all around us, from frequent severe weather events happening around the globe to vanishing island nations in the Pacific. The travel and tourism industry must lead by example and many destinations and stakeholders have been taking steps in embracing practical measures to offset the potentially irreversible damage caused by climate change, such as the banning of single-use plastics, the reduction of food waste, and the use of renewable energies, to name a few,” added Dr. Hardy. “The PATA Recovery Advisory Group is in line with our activities on advocacy, human capital development and sustainability, but one which we would rather not have to call upon. Nevertheless, PATA will always continue to advocate responsible tourism development that benefits, rather than destroy, our communities.”
For more information about the PATA Recovery Advisory Group, please visit the following link:
Founded in 1951, PATA is a not-for-profit membership association that acts as a catalyst for the responsible development of travel and tourism to, from and within the Asia Pacific region. The Association provides aligned advocacy, insightful research and innovative events to its more than 800 member organisations, including 95 government, state and city tourism bodies, 20 international airlines and airports, 102 hospitality organisations and 70 educational institutions, as well as over a hundred young tourism professional (YTP) members across the world. The PATA network also embraces the grassroots activism the PATA Chapters and Student Chapters, who organise numerous travel industry training programmes and business development events across the world. Thousands of travel professionals belong to the 35 local PATA Chapters worldwide, while hundreds of students are members of the 21 PATA Student Chapters globally. Their local activities underpins PATA’s membership in Uniting Travel, a coalition of the world’s major Travel & Tourism organisations dedicated to ensuring that the sector speaks with one voice and acts in unison on the major issues and includes ACI, CLIA, IATA, ICAO, WEF, UNWTO and the WTTC. The PATAmPOWER platform delivers unrivalled data, forecasts and insights from the PATA Strategic Intelligence Centre to members’ desktops and mobile devices anywhere in the world. PATA’s Head Office has been in Bangkok since 1998. The Association also has official offices or representation in Beijing and London.