Getting a Head Start of 2022 With Insights, Conversations, and Partnerships
PATA CEO Liz Ortiguera shared a message with the PATA community on Jan 28, 2022, with updates about PATA’s recent activities. The full message has been reposted below:
Dear PATA Members and Industry Colleagues,
For those of you celebrating across the region and around the world, a warm Lunar New Year greetings to you!
I am writing this on the heels of attending the ASEAN Tourism Forum and a week of critically informative PATA webinars.
First, it was an honour to join this year's ASEAN Tourism Forum, hosted by H.E. Dr Thong Khon and the Ministry of Tourism of Cambodia, where they announced an official start to the reopening of ASEAN tourism. We had the privilege of being hosted for a spectacular welcome dinner with the Cambodian Prime Minister H.E. Samdech Akka Moha Sena Padei Techo Hun Sen as well as a private audience. The forum was a valuable opportunity to hold various bilateral meetings with our PATA destination members within ASEAN and discuss mutual priorities in advancing the recovery of the industry. I look forward to partnering with the ASEAN member states and my colleagues from other organizations in progressing the opening, recovery and responsible growth of travel to, from and within the region.
COVID-19 Destination Recovery Insights Exchange Session for Government Members.
Top L/R: Paul Pruangkarn, Chief of Staff, PATA; Liz Ortiguera, CEO, PATA.
Bottom L/R: Jessie F. McComb, Senior Private Sector Development Specialist - Tourism, World Bank; Dr. Asma Binte Aziz, Research Scientist, International Vaccine Institute.
On Monday, we hosted a Government Members-only session with valuable insight and advisory provided by the International Vaccine Institute. Dr. Asma Binte Aziz shared a practical risk-based approach to international travel noting that "travel bans will not prevent international spread". The Institute advocates for an evidence-informed and risk-based approach. As per WHO guidelines, they advocate that "national governments may apply a multi-layered risk mitigation approach to potentially delay and/or reduce the exportation/importation of the new variant". At PATA, we will continue to share practical and effective advisories such as this to expedite a sustained and responsible restart to travel. These very practical and clear guidelines can be made available upon request.
Complement webinar "NEW PATA Visitor Forecast Updates 2022-2024" to the "Asia Pacific Visitor Forecasts 2022-2024 Executive Summary”
On Tuesday, we hosted our new Visitor Forecast Updates 2022-2024 webinar in partnership with Professor Haiyan Song from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Caroline Bremner from Euromonitor International, and Olivier Henry-Biabaud from TCI Research in conjunction with the release of our latest forecast report.
I would recommend that you view the webinar and the report together since the webinar provides up to the moment advisory as of January 25 - while the report shares statistics compiled at the beginning of November and the onset of the Omicron variant. With the ever-changing dynamics of the pandemic, it is critical to view any data in the context of info that is current to the day. In general, all projected a small incremental impact to the forecast numbers due to Omicron but in the context of generally positive sentiment towards much of Asia-Pacific.
PATA Destination Insight Series Featuring Micronesia - Presented by PATA & BBC
Finally, yesterday, we hosted another Destination Insights session in partnership with our media partner BBC World News - this time profiling the beautiful islands of Micronesia. Watch the inspiring videos and hear from our government representatives from Guam, Kiribati, and Palau. Learn how they have prepared their destinations for the restart of travel and listen to their inspiring updates on how they are focusing on sustainability initiatives to preserve the beauty of their destinations for future generations to come. Watch the video here.
With that said, I would like to end with a warm welcome to our new member, Flywire an innovative payments company, and highlight the release of our new technology report published in partnership with Vynn Capital. These two items only reinforce the notion that innovation is key to our recovery and growth.
The Hard Reboot: Technology Powers Mobility by Vynn Capital and PATA
There are silver linings to this long-running pandemic and together we will continue to work hard to expedite moving forward towards a brighter future.
