PATA Presidential Address

Transcription

1 PATA Presidential Address Delivered by PATA President and CEO Mr Peter de Jong At the 54 th PATA Annual Conference, Macau April 18, 2005 Your Excellency Mr Edmund Ho, Chief Executive of the Government of the Macau Special Administrative Region, Dr Fernando Chui Sai On, Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture, distinguished ministers, special guests, ladies and gentlemen. It is my distinct honour to warmly welcome you, on behalf of the Pacific Asia Travel Association, to the 54 th PATA Annual Conference, here in beautiful Macau. Thank you most sincerely for gracing our event with your presence. May I, first of all, thank on behalf of all of us, our most gracious and generous hosts: The Government of Macau SAR and our dear friends at MGTO, the Macau Government Tourist Office. Our gratitude equally goes to the Macau Host and Organising Committees and the many local volunteers who are working tirelessly to make our stay so comfortable and satisfying. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in a round of applause for our dear friends in Macau. I am going to take you back in time, to the second century BC; to a time when powerful Kings ruled the world, but also feared the wrath of the Gods. We are travelling back to ancient Sri Lanka; to the time of King Kelantissa who ruled over the west of the island from a city near the present capital Colombo. Acting on false advice, the King wrongly punished a Buddhist monk. This angered the Gods and they sent the ocean flooding devastatingly through the west of the land. Overcome with remorse, the King decided to atone for his sacrilegious act by sacrificing his eldest daughter the beautiful Princess Devi to the ocean. Page 1 of 6

2 He set her adrift on the open sea. Days later, villagers were standing on the beach at Kirinda, a small port town on the south coast of Sri Lanka. The day was bright and the sea was a glittering turquoise blue. The villagers saw an object being tossed about on the ocean s waves. As it came closer, they were amazed to see that it was a gold-gilded canoe carrying a beautiful girl. The girl was close to death. They helped her from the boat and ran to the palace to tell their King, Kavantissa, who ruled over the south of the island. The King ordered that the princess be brought to the palace. He soon discovered that the girl was indeed Princess Devi, daughter of King Kelantissa, who was offered as a sacrifice to appease the wrath of the Sea Gods. Undaunted, the King nursed the beautiful princess back to health and married her. Their marriage resulted in the birth of one of the greatest warrior kings of Sri Lanka, Dutu Gemunu, who united the island nation. He built many outstandingly beautiful Buddhist Stupas, which are celebrated as architectural masterpieces still today. And each year, thousands of tourists and pilgrims would visit Kirinda on the south coast of Sri Lanka to see where Princess Devi was rescued from the sea. Thousands of years later, on December 26, 2004, the village of Kirinda was suddenly devastated by a terrible flood. As could have been predicted, the wrath of the Sea Gods had returned. The Indian Ocean tsunami, one of the worst natural disasters our modern world has witnessed, took the lives of more than 170,000 people, with some 100,000 people still missing and feared dead. Among them were many of our colleagues, friends and clients. To remember their fate and honour their passing, I ask that we all stand for a minute of silence (One full minute pause as delegates stood in silence) The dramatic events of those few but fateful minutes on December 26 once again powerfully illustrated the unpredictable nature of life and the unpredictable life of nature. They also posed an immediate challenge to PATA: to respond in a meaningful and effective way on behalf of communities dependent on tourism and our members. Page 2 of 6

3 During these past 100 days, I believe we not only rose to the challenge, but we brought to life our mission to Position, Promote and Protect travel and tourism in Asia Pacific. Two years ago, as we recognised the external threats to our industry, we expanded PATA s strategic agenda to include a strong focus on advocacy and reputation management. It was the right call. Sadder but wiser from our recent years experience dealing with the Bali bombing, with SARS, with Avian Flu, and our successful Phoenix recovery campaign, PATA is now, more than ever, ready to respond rapidly to crises that threaten our region. Only hours after the tsunami struck, we had built a special section on our website, providing updates on the eight Indian Ocean destinations, with links to other important news sources. This would prove to become an invaluable, much consulted source of information. In December 2004, before the tsunami, traffic to the PATA website would peak at about 38,000 hits per day. By December 29, traffic had risen by more than 400 per cent to 135,000 daily hits. Within 24 hours of the tsunami, we had sent condolences and specific messages to the affected destinations, asking for assessments of damage and offering assistance. We issued our first media bulletins, emphasising that search and rescue should be everyone s first priority. On December 27th, we issued our third media bulletin, clarifying that not all of Asia but only specific areas in certain destinations had been affected. It was at this point that we applied our reputation management experience: the need to separate fact from fiction. To ensure that our trading partners, our customers and, importantly, the media, got the real story on the tsunami's impact on affected destinations and on our PATA region as a whole. Our first step was to issue a detailed e-bulletin called Tsunami Travel Facts. It contained a series of colour-coded maps with detailed graphics, which clearly showed where the tsunami had hit, and its impact on cities, resorts, hotels and airports. Importantly, it also identified the many areas that weren t affected and that were operating normally. This bulletin spread quickly around the world, via press conferences, member e- mails, industry newsletters and online news bulletins. PATA s Strategic Intelligence Page 3 of 6

4 Centre produced comprehensive daily updates, giving a detailed breakdown of the status of hotels, ports and airports and other infrastructure in affected destinations. Our next action was to step up our engagement of the global media. Our message was clear: If you wish to demonstrate your solidarity, book a trip and come visit us: we re open for business and we need you now more than ever. Whereas in years past we needed to knock on the media s doors, asking for a chance to plead our case, we are today recognised and respected by the global media not merely as a neutral source of information, but rather as the authoritative voice of Asia Pacific travel and tourism. The media now turn to us, knowing we ll deliver substantive comments backed by hard facts. Over the space of several weeks, PATA executives were constantly driving our message via media such as our Premier Partner CNN, via BBC World and via CNBC. I d like to share just a few media reminders with you now.. (SHOW VIDEO) PATA was also extensively quoted in leading print titles around the world. On January 31st, PATA played a leading role at the World Tourism Organizations 'Tsunami Emergency Task Force' meeting in Phuket, where PATA particularly championed the cause of the many small and medium-sized businesses who were amongst the first (and worst) to get hit and the last (and least) to get assistance. We did this, knowing that PATA had taken its own pro-active stance to tangibly assist victims of the tsunami, only four days after it hit. On December 30th, we launched the PATA Foundation Tsunami Recovery Fund, which set out to help rebuild the lives and livelihoods of tourism workers and communities in the affected destinations. I m delighted to report that the Fund has generated, through direct and indirect contributions, about a quarter of a million US dollars. Large contributions came from such sister travel trade associations as Page 4 of 6

5 the Tax Free World Association, UNAT, Union Nationale des Associations de Tourisme, TravelClick and from our friend Mr Joe McInerney s American Hotel and Lodging Association. Many more, important contributions came from our Chapters, from individual PATA members, institutions and from our friends around the world. The PATA Foundation s Trustees, in close cooperation with PATA Chapters in the affected areas, have selected and evaluated several deserving projects and have now made firm funding commitments. Foundation Chairman David Paulon will give you more details of these projects later in this Conference. Among our many other recovery initiatives, we took affected destinations to the source markets and we brought the source markets to the region. Last month, for instance, we brought PATA industry leaders from tsunami destinations to a special ITB session, graciously hosted by our PATA member Messe Berlin, to speak with leading European tour operators. And in March, our PATA friends in the USA coordinated the 'Flight of Friendship' a widely publicised solidarity visit by North American travel professionals to the Phuket area. Our response to the tsunami, when viewed in total, ladies and gentlemen, is part and parcel PATA s transformation into an agile, knowledge-based, advocacy-embracing travel trade association. A visual reflection of this transformation is the fresh, new PATA brand and corporate identity, which our Board of Directors approved at their September 2004 meeting in Bangkok, Thailand. The tsunami almost eclipsed the launch of our brand scheduled for January 14th. However, in an understandably sober but resilient mood, some 150 PATA members and friends attended the launch at Jim Thompson House in Bangkok. I d like to share with you just a few excerpts of a presentation that was shown at the launch (SHOW VIDEO) Our new brand image is widely acclaimed as fresh, modern and forward-looking. It is now reflected in a full suite of new collateral materials, including the on-line world of pata.org and our many digital newsletters. Bearing in mind the theme of this year s conference, it is safe to say that PATA has truly been Connecting Tourism s Stakeholders these past months. We have Page 5 of 6

6 reached out to victims, coordinated relief efforts, communicated effectively with the media, informed our worried business partners and calmed our anxious customers : we have done that with and through you, our members, our chapters, our friends and partners. For a rare moment in our history, all the World s Stakeholders were truly connected; connected through a genuine sense of compassion and solidarity. We shall remember the many acts of kindness which locals extended to tourists and vice versa. In its truest sense, that is what good tourism is about; respecting our cultural differences and finding our common humanity; and reaching out in friendship. Tourism, at its best, is a peace industry. For all the tragedy that the tsunami in those few fateful minutes visited upon so many of us, it also brought out the best in all of us: as we gave and shared generously and found that shared humanity. And despite the various crises we have had to endure in recent years, our industry continues to grow. According to the latest forecasts from PATA s Strategic Intelligence Centre, every destination in the PATA region will post positive arrivals growth up to Our future as the world s preferred destination and most promising source market is bright indeed. Let us bear that in mind as we go into this wonderful Conference programme over the next three days here in Macau. Just as we have good reason to be optimistic about the future of our industry in Asia Pacific, the world s most dynamic region, these past 100 days have also shown that we have reason to remain hopeful about the human condition. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much; please enjoy the 54 th PATA Annual Conference in Macau. (ENDS) Page 6 of 6