PATA for the Wholistic Restart of Asia Pacific Travel
PATA CEO, Liz Ortiguera, shared a message to our network of valued PATA International Members on Oct 14, 2021 with details about her top priorities. Full content has been reposted below:
Dear PATA Members and Industry Colleagues,
The past few days have seen a spate of new announcements from India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - all taking incremental steps in reopening to visitors. This is a welcome ray of light in the next stage of our recovery.
Destinations across the region have maintained a high focus on vaccine deployment and assessing the optimal health and safety protocols to support both the welfare of the local community and incoming travellers. There are still critical gaps to close in South Asia and Southeast Asia in particular. The Association appreciates the difficult balance governments are continually weighing in assessing health and safety risk versus the impact on livelihoods dependent on travel and tourism. Equal access to vaccines and broad-based deployment is a critical foundation to the restart of travel across the region. At PATA we have a high appreciation of the work UNICEF is doing for COVAX in deploying vaccines across the world, particularly in developing nations. I’ve signed the WHO’s Vaccine Equity pledge - I would encourage all of you to sign this pledge as well - https://www.who.int/campaigns/vaccine-equity/vaccine-equity-declaration
On Oct 5th, we hosted our third instalment of the Destination Recovery Insights Exchange for our Government Members, co-hosted with the World Bank. This initiative is #2 in PATA's 8-Point plan to support our members and the industry, by presenting and discussing COVID-19 recovery best practices and sharing learnings. We heard excellent briefings from our destination members Guam, USA and Macao, China. Kudos to the collaborative approach and learnings shared by both representatives. We plan to continue this series with a broadened scope of topics. PATA Government Members can receive a copy of the recording on request.
Given the importance and pandemic-propelled growth of the wellness travel arena, PATA will launch its first Virtual Wellness and Luxury Conference and Mart next week from Oct 20-22. We will highlight a few of the industry leaders who are setting the direction for wholistic wellness and luxury - with the focus being on the integration of personal, community and environmental wellbeing. Our first virtual event features a raft of new collaborators including Susie Ellis from Global Wellness Institute, Jane Sun from Trip.com, and Renyung Ho of Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts with common goals and interests. We will continue to expand on this important topic well into 2022 and beyond.
This coming Fri - Sun, October 15 - 17 we continue our focus on responsible rural tourism by co-hosting a colloquium at the 15th UNWTO/PATA Forum on Tourism Trends and Outlook that will take place under the theme ‘Tourism and Rural Development.’ This hybrid event will analyse new challenges and opportunities faced by the industry and explore the transition and transformation of tourism into more sustainable, resilient and ethical development. Join global expert speakers as they share practices and strategies on tourism recovery with an emphasis on the promotion of domestic travel, staycations and community-based tourism
And lastly, it was my pleasure two weeks ago to have a virtual introduction to Ben Sherman at the World Indigenous Tourism Alliance (WINTA) and hear the origins of their initiatives. I was pleased to hear how broadly their community has grown since its inception. I later learned about the raft of travel organisations and forums that have been spawned from PATA members and our networking events - including WINTA, Hotel Resilient, the Mekong Tourism Forum, the World Tourism Association for Culture and Heritage (WTACH) and the Pacific Area Travel Writers Association (PATWA) to name a few.
PATA has a rich history and legacy that should be recognised. Our mission is to expand on this great foundation to expedite the recovery and restart Asia Pacific as the sustainable and responsible engine of growth for the travel and tourism industry globally.