The Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is pleased to announce the beginning of a new collaboration with Visa to extend the Tourism Destination Resilience (TDR) Programme and continue to contribute to the development of a more resilient and sustainable tourism industry.
The COVID-19 pandemic has painfully demonstrated the importance of destinations being prepared for challenges and potential crises, as well as understanding how to adapt to changes.
The Visa collaboration focuses on strengthening the capacity of two critical but often overlooked travel and tourism stakeholders: small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and informal workers. PATA and Visa will create two new online learning modules for SMEs, focusing on financial literacy, digital competency, and cybersecurity. The new courses will be added to PATA’s existing TDR Course and will be available to the public in six languages: English, Vietnamese, Bahasa Indonesia, Khmer, Thai, and Mandarin Chinese, as with the other modules.
In addition to the online modules, PATA and Visa will provide in-person training for SMEs in four locations in the second half of the year: Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
“SMEs account for 80% of all tourism businesses,” says PATA Chair Peter Semone. As we prepare our destinations for the future, SMEs must also strengthen their resilience. Greater digital literacy and financial knowledge are therefore essential for learning how to adapt to the new era of tourism and prepare for future challenges.
The collaboration aims to empower informal workers in the travel and tourism industry by assisting in the development of their capacity not only in digital and financial skills, but also in health and safety, marketing and communication, and other topics that may be identified during a needs analysis. The project’s implementation will take place in Indonesia in the latter stages.
Informal workers account for the majority of tourism employment and provide opportunities for women, youth, and the elderly. In times of crisis, however, because they lack formal government registration, they frequently fall through the cracks of social protection and employee benefit schemes.
“Visa is proud to provide digital literacy and financial education to the thousands of small and micro businesses and informal workers, such as walking guides, transport drivers, or translators, who are the backbone of our region’s tourism industry,” said Patsian Low, Vice President of Inclusive Impact & Sustainability for Asia Pacific at Visa. As travel and tourism continue to grow post-COVID-19, our partnership with PATA will help individuals, businesses, and economies thrive, allowing us to fulfill our mission of uplifting everyone, everywhere by being the best way to pay and be paid.”
“We are excited to collaborate with Visa and our country partners to strengthen the capacity of SMEs and informal workers. This partnership will not only allow us to expand the impacts of Tourism Destination Resilience within destinations but will also target the two groups who most often lack support in the industry,” says Pavnesh Kumar, PATA’s Sustainability and Social Responsibility Programme Head.
