Why you have to attend the Australasian Economic Travel and Tourism Resilience Forum, Manly, Sydney, December 6 2008

Dr David Beirman is one of the organisers of the Australasian Economic Travel and Tourism Resilience Forum taking place in Manly, Sydney on Saturday December 6 and he sent TravelMole this article which you cannot afford to ignore: –

With the generous support and sponsorship of The International College of Management and Southern Cross University School of Tourism, along with eTravelBlackboard and TravelMole, I am one of the team of volunteers, staging what I believe without question to be the most important conference ever held in Australia to address the issue of how tourism and hospitality businesses will survive and prosper during the current economic challenges. 

Many travel agencies, wholesalers, hoteliers, airlines, tour operators and tourism related businesses are already finding the going tough and we have assembled the finest collection of highy qualified and experienced talent available from the travel industry, media and tourism academia to present tourism and hospitality businesses with tangible and workable solutions to the current challenges.

Professors Larry Dwyer and Ray Spurr of the University of NSW are widely recognised as two of the  world’s finest tourism economists and they will explain in simple and commercial terms how the world got into the current mess and how your business can ride the economic storm.

Professor John Jenkins of Southern Cross University is widely regarded as the world’s leading expert on tourism policy and planning and will explain how your business can plan and structure a workable set of policies for managing tough times.

Ravi Ravinder of University of Technology Sydney who was a successful tourism executive before lecturing at UTS will explain key strategic approaches to managing shocks and changes to your business. 

Barry Matheson former producer of Channel 7’s Great Outdoors will give you tips on media strategies which help you and your business talk up tourism and talk up your business. 

Adrian Caruso who is widely regarded as Australia’s top tourism business coach will provide business tips for each individual business to attract customers during challenging times without hurting your bottom line.

The Pacific Asia Travel Association PATA will give a presentation on Project Phoenix the world’s most successful tourism recovery campaign which revitalised tourism in the Asia Pacific region after the 2003 SARS outbreak, methods which are equally relevant to today.

I (David Beirman) will focus on the strategies which have been proven winners in restoring tourism destinations and businesses from crisis events, many of which I employed successfully during the 12 years I had tourism’s most challenging destination assignment as Director of the Israel Tourism Office and with many of my crisis management clients throughout the world.

The forum will also include a panel of experts from various sectors of the tourism industry including the Council of Australian Tour Operators GM Peter Baily and arrange of others that we are finalising right now, who will share their strategies and tactics to overcome the present challenges.

The forum will break into special interest groups where we will all examine and come up with tangible and workable solutions directly relevant to your sector and business, which you can take back and use in your business.

Some people have said to us, why not wait until after Christmas to run this conference, but we believe if we do, some of you reading this may well be finding your business is unsustainable by early 2009.

We also believe that procrastinating and doing nothing is not a solution.

The current global economic situation presents the greatest challenge to world tourism since 9/11, when people were afraid to fly in a plane.

Now they are afraid to spend money on travel because they think it’s a discretionary or luxury expense.

Our challenge is to position tourism as an essential part of life and to get people to understand that travel is a better investment in their well being than banks or the stock market.

It’s a tough assignment but this forum will give you the tools to sell that message and keep your business resilient.

This forum is not being organised by us on a commercial or profit making basis, but as our contribution to the future survival of this great industry, with the fee to attend intended to cover our costs.

In addition, thanks to the support we have had from our sponsors we can offer this conference to you which includes all presentations, morning tea, working lunch, afternoon tea and post conference drinks at the magnificent location of the International College of Management Sydney, 151 Darley Rd Manly (the former Cardinal’s palace) overlooking Manly Beach for only $88.

We also have an early bird special running to the end of this week so if you register this week up to and including 21 November the cost will be a mere $66.

Most business conferences of this calibre would cost $1,000 for the day.

We appreciate that times may be on the tough side, but for only $66, you can obtain from globally recognised experts, the tools to ensure your tourism business will be resilient during these tough times.

Come and join us on December 6th  in Manly and learn how to ride the waves of economic uncertainty during the day and maybe catch a few waves at nearby Manly beach after the conference.

For more information and to book, click here right now: –

http://www.travelpress.com.au/etbpromotions/TourismResilienceForum/

A Report and Special Offer by The Mole