APEC 2007 Tourism Crisis to take place in May

The Federal Government’s Department of Tourism, Industry and Resources has announced that as part of the tourism-related events for APEC 2007, it is hosting an APEC Tourism Forum entitled “The Importance of Collaboration in Times of Crisis”.

The Forum will be on Tuesday 15^th May 2007 at the Sofitel Gold Coast, and a DTIR spokesperson said, that it will gather industry and government tourism stakeholders to discuss the value of collaboration between governments, industry, international organisations and the community during times of crisis.

The Department goes on to say that Case studies on natural disasters like Cyclone Larry and the Boxing Day tsunami, and pandemic events such as SARS will highlight the complexities faced by governments, communities and organisations when coping with such events and panel discussions will seek participants’ insight into the needs and roles of stakeholders in crisis response.

The Department has invited interested tourism stakeholders to participate in the one-day Forum program, with registration free and including lunch and a post-Forum networking function.

For further information on the Forum, please call Jaymie Cantle on 02 6213 7051, email [email protected] or CLICK HERE.

The APEC Tourism Working Group was formed in 1991 in recognition that tourism was of growing importance to promoting economic growth and social development in the Asia-Pacific region, with the 30^th APEC Tourism Working Group meeting will be held on 16 – 17 May at the Sofitel Gold Coast and TWG delegates from the 21 APEC Economies discussing key issues affecting tourism growth in the APEC region including, Tourism Satellite Accounts; Aviation Development and Liberalisation; and Destination Management Planning.

Further information on the APEC Tourism Working Group can be obtained from: http://www.apec.org/apec/apec_groups/working_groups/tourism.html

The organisers would not reveal the speakers for the APEC “The Importance of Collaboration in Times of Crisis” Forum with enquires by The Mole drawing a blank, except for call to leading Australian and international tourism crisis and recovery expert, David Beirman, who The Mole had presumed would be speaking but appears to have been rebuffed, with Mr Beirman saying , “Its a very strange story, because when the Korean’s organised the APEC Tourism Forum in May 2005 which also focussed on crisis and recovery, speakers were advised several months in advance and a  programme was posted on the web quite early in the piece,” adding, “When I became accidentally aware of this event I wrote to the Department about my own record in this field and also  offered to help the Department of Industry, Resources and Tourism source the best international and Australian speakers simply because I know most of them.” 

“My offer was politely but firmly rebuffed and I was told by that the organising committee who are unknown, but who apparently have some connection with the World Tourism Organisation had matters in hand and all would be revealed at an appropriate time.”

He added, “I can assure you that I’m not overly fussed for myself about whether I’m invited to speak or not, because I have a heck of a lot on my plate especially in May of this year and I’ve just been invited to be the keynote speaker at a major tourism crisis management conference in Toronto Canada in September, with my ego in no need of extra sustenance especially after I received very positive feedback from the recent crisis management courses I ran in both Fiji and Sydney.”

Mr Beirman also said, “I was however amazed that John King who as ATEC Chairman. a globally recognised crisis management expert and a board member of the World Tourism Organisation appears not to have been was not contacted to participate either and when I asked him last week if he’d been approached to speak at the APEC Tourism Forum he was not even aware that it was happening.”

“Incidentally this same Ministry has sponsored a series of free crisis management courses for small Australian businesses (including tourism businesses), however you have to burrow through the department’s web site to find any information on them and from what I’ve heard they had a poor response despite the fact that the courses were free, but it is good to see that at least TravelMole has been able to find out about this Forum and will spread the news.”  

A Report by The Mole