The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is to establish a Rapid Recovery Task Force to address post-crisis recovery strategies in the face of natural, economic, or political upheaval across countries.

At the PATA 60th Anniversary and Conference in Beijing last month PATA chief executive, Bill Calderwood, expressed his concern over the natural disasters and other catastrophic events that have recently struck various countries, and the challenges that they posed for the tourism industry.

Destination countries such as Japan, New Zealand, Australia, Myanmar, Thailand, China and many parts of the Middle East have all suffered not only from the immediate personal and economic impact, but also the ongoing and residual damage which makes it even harder to restore confidence in the destination as a safe, desirable place to visit.

Calderwood said: “Such misperceptions are difficult to dispel and an unwelcome barrier to the recovery of the tourism economy.

“Therefore, we have been asking ourselves what PATA can do to assist our members across all sectors to speed the recovery and minimise the impact of any negative perception.”

The PATA Rapid Recovery Task Force answers this question.

This Task Force will be comprised of PATA members who will work on these issues and consequently devise rapid response strategies that will provide the industry with a pro-active action plan, and resources to speed its recovery post crisis.

Bert van Walbeek, a veteran of many crisis management programmes and also the chairman of the PATA Thailand Chapter, will chair the Task Force.

Other members will include Mario Hardy, David Beirman, Rick Vogel, Ken Scott, and Kris Lim.