Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) one of the apex bodies in Global Tourism, teamed up with GIZ to organize a virtual training program via Zoom for Sri Lanka Tourism on four days including 12, 13, 24 and 25 November 2020.
Sri Lanka’s long-standing proud membership induced PATA’s collaboration with GIZ to sponsor two global experts Tourism Crisis Management Expert John Bailey and Global Tourism Marketing Guru Damian Cook, in training Sri Lanka’s Tourism’s key personnel from Sri Lanka Tourism Development Authority, Sri Lank Tourism Promotion Bureau, Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism & Hotel Management and Sri Lanka Convention Bureau, entirely free of charge.
John Bailey’s crisis and reputation management experience for global companies spans 25 years and has trained professionals for 100 clients in 50 countries, including 60 airlines and major global hotel groups. He managed IATA’s Crisis Communications consultancy in Geneva and built the largest privately held PR agency in Singapore before his ascent in Global Communications.
COVID-19 is viewed as an Existential Crisis that will not end soon and neither does it have a defined ending. In such an environment Tourism Sector has effectively shut down. The training focused on the importance of keeping the tourism industry afloat in critical times, being proactive as a Destination, igniting traveller interests through innovation, while being prepared for new oncoming challenges.
The experts pinpointed four key messages highlighting the development of a 3-phase plan for recovery targeting a new market, focusing on sustainability partnering trade, creating P2P models that identify markets and channels and being aware of changing trends and markets establishing a future proof approach.
The identification of the Unique Selling Proposition (USP) of the destination is key and Sri Lanka Tourism needs to focus on experiences-based tourism activities, giving increased attention in the niche segments of tourism. Recognizing the key money-making activities as a destination such as Accommodation, Food and Beverage, Shopping and Experiences is important.
Also, Sri Lanka Tourism would like to extend these knowledge sharing sessions to the tourism industry thus invites all Tourism Industry stakeholders to participate in a Tourism Webinar on 11th December 2020, to share new knowledge with PATA’s global tourism experts John Bailey and Damian Cook, together with Dr Chandralal from Sri Jayawardenepura University, who will present his Destination Image-based Marketing Research on Sri Lanka. Kimarli Fernando, Chairperson Sri Lanka Tourism will also contribute at the webinar which will be moderated by Dileep Mudadeniya, Vice president Marketing and Events, Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts and Head of Corporate Affairs - John Keells PLC. Sri Lanka Tourism invites interested industry stakeholders and the public to take part in this knowledge sharing session by registering through srilanka.travel/webinar.
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