BANGKOK, 26 March 2020: The Pacific Asia Travel Association is opening a crisis resource centre to support members with data and research to help them rebuild business once Covid-19 peaks.
Noting that losses are now approaching USD100 billion and more than 50 million jobs are at risk globally, PATA CEO, Mario Hardy, said the “travel and tourism industry needs to act now to protect its future”.
He says the new centre will support members with reliable data and information to mitigate a balanced recovery.
“Organisations are being inundated with informational webinars and situational updates, while news sites, search engines and social media are flooded with misinformation and panic”, he said, in a post to the members released Monday. “What is needed most now is a unified, trusted source of data and information that is fact-checked and verified.”
He confirmed the association is the process of setting up a ‘PATA Crisis Resource Centre” to collate reliable data and information to assist all industry stakeholders as they deal with the current crisis.
“We are currently asking governments and international and national organisations for assistance in collecting information on the aid packages available to businesses in their respective destinations.”
He did not give a firm timeframe when the new centre would be up and running and delivering data.
“As the industry faces one of the greatest threats it has ever seen, this is not a time for competition between individuals and organisations, but a time for coordinated cooperation between all industry stakeholders.”
