APEC Tourism Forum

Over 150 travel industry leaders and professionals, government officials, tourism academics and  students from all over Australia and SE Asia gathered in the Gold Coast last week to participate in the APEC Tourism Forum which was hosted and organised by the Australian Ministrey of Industry Tourism and Resources.and held at the Sofitel Hotel Gold Coast.

The intensive one day seminar which was themed on the topic of collabratation in times of crisis was a mixture of some top class presentations from Australian and International speakers, a simulation game which involved all participants focussing on what all hope is a fictional destructive cyclone hitting the Queendsland Gold Coast and ample time for discourse betwen presenters and attendees.

The tight schedule was ably chaired by Patricia Kelly Deputy Secretary of the Department of Industry Tourism and resources and speakers included Geoffrey Lipman Deputy Secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organisation who eloquenty outlined the major upgrades in the WTO’s managment anfd monitoring of tourism crisi events.

Dr Sasithara Pichaichannarong, Deputy Permanent Secretary of the Thai Ministry of Tourism gave a passionate address on Thailand’s receivery from the 2004 Tsunami and the collaboration between Thailand and countries in the ASEAN region and APEC countries including Australia  in its crisis management and recovery processes.

Sandy Hollway delivered an outstanding address at the conference by applying the lessons he had experienced in managing recovery from last years Cyclone Larry in North Queenland and the 2003 Canberra bushfires, his ten commandements of crisis management setting the tone for most subsequent speakers at the conference.

In short Hollways ten points were:

1. The importantce of an effective alliance.

2. Dedicated top down machinery for crisis management and recovery.

3. Hit the ground running and maintain momentum.

4. Engage the local community which has been affected by a crisis event.

5. Consistent honest and accurate publuc communications.

6. Ensure that there is a proper and efficient process.

7. The primacy of prople over budgets.

8. Get ahead of the curve.. Think ahead of the immediate chaos.

9. Build back better.

10. Get things moving quickly and adapt god ideas and management plans.

Hollway gave excellent coverage to all his points and his address was amplified by Dr Lilly Chui who was coordinating SARS treatment at the Princess Margaret Hospital in Hong Kong where she is CEO.

Her moving narrative of the challenge to victims, families and hospital staff in dealing with the SARS epidemic in Hong Kong during early 2003 provided a very human story of the impacts of a crisis event and she related this to the ups and downs of Hong Kong tourism at the time.

The conference coincided with the release of the combined APEC, PATA and UNWTO Tourism Risk Managment Course for tourism industry professionals. This professional document and accompanying CD Rom disk is an invaluable contribution to the industry.

Produced by an Australian  team led by Ian Kean Executive Director of the APEC International Centre for Sustainable Tourism this is a valuable and user friendly contribution to crisis and risk management, easily digestible to tourism professionals and stripped of acadamic complications.

Doone Robertson, Yetta Gurtner, Stewart More, Cara Holcombe and Professor Jeff Wilks all made major contrbutions to this excellent resource which is available free of charge to industry professionals in 5 languages.

It can be downloaded on www.apec.org/content/apec/publications/all_publications/tourism_workinggroup.html

Ian Kean addressed the conference on the Manual and a range of issues including the need to adopt a fully professional approach to crisis management.

Chris Buckingham of Giplsland Tourism outlined the process recovery in the region of Eastern Victoria after the destructive bushfires of late 2006 and early 2007. 

Overall the conference was exceedingly informative and well run. The major gap was the lack of involvement from the Pacific Asia Travel Assocation which should have been a natural partner to a program involving the Asia Pacific region.

It appears that PATA had been “overlooked” by conference organisers which to this author’s mind was a grave error considering PATA’s proactive role in crisis and recovery management in the Asia Pacific region and its co-sponsorship of the APEC Tourism risk management training program.

Sam Miszkowski who is an ALP candidate for the Federal Gold Coast seat of Moncrieff attended the Forum and declared it to major learning exercise for him as a candidate in one of Australia’s leading tourism centres.

On the government side of politcs, Tourism Minister Fran Bailey closed the meeting and mingled with delegates.

The Department of Industry Tourism and Resouces have said that papers presented at the conference will be available to interested industry professionals from their web site www.industry.gov.au/apectourism

The APEC Tourism working Group continues on May 16-17

Report by David Beirman, International Tourism Crisis Management Specialist and TravelMole contributor.