Key Highlights from PATA Destination Marketing Forum 2021!
The Virtual PATA Destination Marketing Forum 2021, organised in partnership with the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Sarawak and the Sarawak Tourism Board, explored important topics on helping destinations move forward in the post-pandemic era, highlighting inspiring stories that showcased the importance of marketing and managing destinations as we look toward the responsible and sustainable recovery of the travel and tourism industry.
The post-event recordings will be available exclusively to PATA International Members. Contact our Membership Team for access >
Here are the key takeaways from the Virtual PATA Destination Marketing Forum 2021:
Keynote Presentation: Moving Beyond Destination Marketing to Destination Management
Greg Klassen, Partner, Twenty31
To overcome a destinations’ fear of possible COVID-19 transmissions from international visitors, resident sentiments must be addressed, highlighting the need of transitioning from destination marketing to destination management.
Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) need to take a more balanced approach in considering local government policy with key stakeholders, local residents, and visitors’ needs in order to endure that tourism positively impacts the local communities, which need to be respected and empowered. This will require a whole new set of skills and mandates, which marketing efforts should highlight- showing the value of the community and their best interests.
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Destination Case Studies on Sustainability from Asia Pacific
Top L/R: Kadoi Ruluked, Managing Director, Palau Visitors Authority; Paul Pruangkarn, Director-Communications & External Affairs, PATA. Bottom: Sharzede Datu Haji Salleh Askor, CEO, Sarawak Tourism Board.
Sarawak, Malaysia is reshaping their tourism industry toward a more sustainable future through empowering local communities with public-private partnerships, establishing protected areas, producing a Journal of Responsible Tourism Management for educational purposes, inviting visitors to sign the Responsible Tourism Pledge, and more. Their Local Communities - Homestay Initiatives have benefitted over 16,000+ residents, and the green initiative-incorporated Rainforest World Music Festival has been named as the ‘One to Watch’ by WTM Responsible Tourism Awards 2021.
“By 2030, Sarawak will be a thriving society driven by data and innovation where everyone enjoys economic prosperity.”
In preparation for a sustainable reopening, the Palau Visitors Bureau (PVA) has continued to conduct Customer Service Trainings for local communities and businesses, and have been working to increase awareness on pollution and educate individuals, especially the youth, through various initiatives. Besides the Safe For You Programme that certifies safe properties, PVA also ensures a positive presence on social media and other online channels to reassure visitors.
“It’s the new normal, there is no solution. However, the best way to tackle the pandemic going forward is to stick together, work together, and stay resilient.”
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Stories That Inspire
Top: Anne Banas, Editor, BBC Travel; Bottom: Nicola Eliot, VIce President, BBC StoryWorks.
BBC Travel speaks to their audiences by reporting about places the readers have never visited and shows them new sides of destinations they never knew about. The popularity of history, culture, archeology, and food articles reflected the audience’s interest in broader travel themes. BBC Travel’s new programme “World’s Table“ will dig deep into gastronomy stories that will change how the world sees local cuisine.
BBC StoryWorks has been working on several projects to depict destination stories for their audiences- Macao, China; Tokyo; Singapore, and soon the Philippines. The Get to Know Macao campaign was the first to capture the BBC audiences’ attention; followed by the Discover Tokyo campaign that attracted more than 200k page views by showcasing both the traditional and modern parts of Tokyo. The Singapore Memories campaign inspired twice as much page views with its memory-crowdsourcing project.
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Presentation: Cardamom Tent Camp: How an Accommodation Looks to Change the World
Willem Niemeijer, CEO & Founder, YAANA Ventures
Located at a national park in Cambodia with a boat as the sole transportation to the property, the Cardomom Tent Camp is a three-party project that ensures the jungles can keep standing and the wildlife remain alive and flourishing in their own habitats. The camp is an effort to help visitor dispersion and extend the duration of visitors’ stay in order to sustain the tourism industry in Cambodia. Increased domestic visitors during the pandemic helped keep the accommodation open; nevertheless, in the short run, the restart of international travels is still urgently needed. In the long run, a responsible mindset and sustainable regulations are essential to ensure the wellbeing of the livelihoods of all involved in there.
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Experiences that Inspire - The Rainforest World Music Festival
Top L/R: Paul Pruangkarn, Director- Communications & External Affairs, PATA; Datu Aloysius Dris, Former Permanent State Secretary of Ministry of Tourism, Sarawak; Former CEO, Sarawak Tourism Board. Bottom: Robert Basiuk, Co-founder & Executive Director, Borneo Adventure; Co-founder, The Rainforest World Music Festival.
The Rainforest World Music Festival was first created to present Sarawak’s beautiful music to the world. The music society, the tourism board, and other stakeholders came together to build this platform for local musicians, and the tourism industry bloomed with the increased popularity of this new event. Local relevance, local pride, and a global network are the keys to the Festival’s success; and Sarawak sincerely invites everyone to visit this amazing experience in person!
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Tourism Destination Resilience – The Path towards Sustainability
Graham Harper, Sustainability & Social Responsibility Advisor, PATA
Tourism destinations cannot be sustainable before they are resilient. This relies on the shift from destination marketing to destination management to set risk management, capacity adaptation, and offering diversification in place. PATA’s Tourism Destination Resilience programme offers tool kits, guides, and reports to help local destinations find ways to become more resilient, enhance and improve their overall tourism offers, and strengthen the relationship between the tourism industry and local communities.
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Best Practices of COVID-19 Recovery
Top L/R: Rajan Datar, Presenter, BBC’s The Travel Show; Dr. Abdulla Mausoom, Minister of Tourism, Ministry of Tourism, Maldives. Bottom L/R: Dushan Wickramasuriya, Director, Marketing, Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau; Chattan Kunjara Na Ayudhya, Deputy Governor for International Marketing (Europe, Africa, Middle East and Americas), Tourism Authority of Thailand.
Maldives kept their reopening protocols simple and their messages transparent. The tactic worked well with visitors as they flooded the social media with beautiful vacation photos which helped Maldives restart tourism. The success with Thailand’s Phuket Sandbox Programme set the path for its travel restart, and the kingdom is now ready to gradually open up more destinations to eventually welcome international travels on a nation-wide level. Sri Lanka has been expanding their airports and implementing digital systems during the pandemic, and they have also been appointing destination marketing agencies and PR agencies in their main markets to embrace travel restart.
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Presentation: Digital Marketing Master Class
Damian Cook, Founder & CEO, E-Tourism Frontiers
The travel industry has changed fundamentally- every destination is now a startup, and planning has become more important than ever. The pandemic saw a 70% increase in digital consumption, and 44% of the travel sales are online led by fully independent travellers making online travel purchases. DMOs now have to move from content production to content aggregation, simultaneously shifting from owning the destinations to partnering with various stakeholders to manage the destination. These changes bring their own set of both challenges and opportunities.
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The post-event recordings will be available exclusively to PATA International Members. Contact our Membership Team for access >
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Registration to Virtual PATA Destination Marketing Forum 2021 was open to all with the generous support of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, and Culture, Sarawak and the Sarawak Tourism Board. We would also like to thank our Supporting Media Partners: eGlobal Travel Media, Travel Daily News, Travelindex, Travel Weekly, TTG Asia Media, and TTR Weekly.
Most importantly, thank you to all the speakers and delegates that made this event possible!
