Month: June 2020

Her Excellency Mrs. Majd Mohammad Shweikeh

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ITSC 2019 Speaker
Her Excellency Mrs. Majd Mohammad Shweikeh Minister of Tourism & Antiquities
Jordan

Her Excellency Mrs. Majd Mohammad Shweikeh is the Minister of Tourism & Antiquities since Jan 2019till present.

Before that, she assumed several ministerial positions since 2015; Minister of ICT; minister of Public Sector Development and State Minister for institutional Public Sector Enhancement.

Excellency Shweikeh was the Founder of Masharek 360 solutions Middle East for High Performance Leadership between 2012-2015; and before that from 2010-2012, worked as a Group CEO of VITEL Middle East and Africa Limited leading 4 different Telecom companies, in GSM, Wireless Local Loop, Fiber Optic and CDMA in Jordan, Iraq and Africa. Between 2000 and 2010 Excellency Shweikeh worked in Orange Group, as a Vice president of Jordan telecom Group and CEO of Orange Mobile from 2006-2010. When she was named as the first female CEO of a GSM operator in the world. And Chief financial officer since 2000-2006 for MobileCom (currently branded Orange Mobile).

Excellency Shweikeh joined many boards as a Board Member in different organizations locally and internationally throughout her journey.

Dho Young-shim

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ITSC 2019 Speaker
Dho, Young-shim Chairperson, UN SDGs Advocate Alumni
Chairperson, International Charity Foundation

EDUCATION
1960 -1966 Ewha Girl’s Junior and Senior High School; Seoul, Korea
1966 -1968 Contra Costa College; Contra Costa, California, U.S.A
1968 -1971 University of Wisconsin Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism and Public Relations; Minor in French Literature, Graduated with Honors: Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A
1980 -1981 Sorbonne University Certificate in French Civilization and Language with Scholarship from the French Foreign Ministry – Paris, France
1982 -1984 University of Oklahoma Master of Arts in Public Administration
1986 Seoul National University National Policy Program, Graduate School of Public Administration

CAREER

National
1979 -1981 Conference Adviser to the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea
1981 -1985 Chief Protocol Secretary of the Speaker of National Assembly
1985 -1988 Chief of Staff of Foreign Affairs Committee of ROK National Assembly
1988 -1992 Member of National Assembly of Republic of Korea
1988 -1992 Vice Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the ROK National Assembly
1993 Co-Host of Seoul Broadcast System’s(SBS) Monthly American Talk Show, Inside Washington
1995 -2007 President of The Hahoe Mask Dance Drama Preservation Society (Foundation of Andong Maskdance)
1999 -2000 Vice Chairman of the Organizing Committee for Visit Korea Year 2001-2002
2000 -2003 Chairperson of the Organizing Committee for Visit Korea Year 2001-2002
2001 -2003 Adviser and Board Member of the Korea Tourism Association
2001 -2006 Board Member of the Seoul Tourism Association
2002 -2003 Member of the 2003 ICCA (The International Congress and Convention Association) Korea Host Committee
2002 -2008 Chairperson of Korea Culture and Tourism Policy Institute of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
2002 -2012 Chairperson of Busan Choir Organizing Committee
2003 Republic of Korea, The Ambassador of Cultural Cooperation
2003 -2007 Founder of The Korea BBB Association (Volunteer Service for Translation)
2003 -present Chairperson of The Korea Choral Institute
2004 -2006 Board Member of The Koguryo Research Foundation
2004 -2008 Board Member of The Korea National Tourism Organization
2005 -2006 Republic of Korea, The Ambassador of Tourism and Sports
2005 -2006 Chairperson of The National Image Promotion Board
2005 -2008 Adviser of The Korean Olympic Committee
2005 -2008 Board Member of The Korea International Broadcasting Foundation (Arirang TV)
2005 -2009 Arirang Café Special (Monthly talk show) – Host (Arirang TV)
2005 -2012 President of The Korea Orienteering Federation
2006 -2008 Chairperson of The Supporting Organization, Korean National Theater
2006 -2007 Chairperson of The Organizing Committee for Visit Gyeongbuk-KOREA 2007
2015 – present Board Member of Korea Women Parliamentarian Network

International

1981 -1988 Adviser to the Inter-parliamentary Union
1982 Organizer of the annual U.S.-Korea Parliamentary Conference (Northeast Asian Council) for the Center for Strategic and International Studies
1982 -1992 Member of Korean Delegation to the Inter-parliamentary Union (IPU)
1985 United States Congressional Fellow, Sponsored by American Political Science Association/Asia Foundation
1989 Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Washington, D.C.
2001 -2004 Vice Chairman of PATA (The Pacific Asia Travel Association), Korea Chapter
2002 -2004 Member of The 2004 PATA (The Pacific Asia Travel Association) Advisory Committee
2003 – present Board member of International Charity Foundation
2003 – 2004 Board Member of the Pacific Asia Travel Association
2003 – 2005 Vice Chairman of the Organizing Committee for Frankfurt Book Fair 2005
2004 – 2005 Member of the Advisory Committee for Asia-Pacific Week Berlin 2005
2004 – 2005 Member of the Advisory Committee for Korea-Japan Friendship Year 2005
2004 – 2012 Board Member of the International Federation for Choral Music, UNESCO
2004 – 2018 Korean Government Representative to the UNWTO ST-EP Foundation
2005 – 2017 Member of the UNWTO Strategic Group
2006 – 2018 Chairperson of the UNWTO ST-EP Foundation Board of Directors
2006 – 2010 Board Member of the Association High Performance Olympic Sports Training Center Monaco
2006 -2016 Member of The Silk Road Eminent Persons Group organized by UNDP, UNCTAD, UNWTO
2008 Awarded Title of High Knight of the Order of Merit by the Italian Republic
2008 – 2014 Member, 2014 Incheon Asian Games Organizing Committee
2008 – 2017 Special Envoy of UNWTO, Sustainable Tourism for Poverty Alleviation
2010 – 2015 United Nations Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group, Member
2011 – 2013 Member of the PyeongChang 2013 Special Olympic Winter Games Organization Committee
2011 – 2018 Member of the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic & Paralympic Winter Games Bid Committee
2014 – 2015 Honorary Chairperson, 10th World Symposium of Choral Music Preparatory Committee in 2014
2016 – present United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy Group, Member
2017 Chair, UNWTO Transition Team
2017 – present Chairperson, International Charity Foundation
2018 – present Chairperson, UN SDGs Advocate Alumni
2018 – present Special Advisor, SDGs Center for Africa, Rwanda
2018 – present Special Advisor, PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association),Thailand
2018 – present Member of the Board of Directors, GTRC (Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Center), Jamaica
2018 – present Professor of Practice, Hong-Kong Polytechnic University, Hong-Kong
2019-present Chairperson Preparatory Committe ,ISTO (International Sports & Tourism Organization for peace & prosperity

Rob Broere

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ITSC 2019 Speaker
Rob Broere VP-Industry Change
Seychelles

Rob Broere VP-Industry Change at Emirates Airline started his career in 1981 with KLM as programmer on the Reservation/Check-in system.

He joined Emirates in 1995 to install the newly acquired Emirates Res/DCS system and managed the system for Emirates and number of other airlines that were hosted on the system under the Mercator brand until 2013 when his focussed switched full time to the future of travel.

Since 2007 he has been representing Emirates and the middle east airlines at IATA as part of the Simplifying the Business (StB) program that focussed on the future of travel He has been one of the 2 leaders of the group throughout its existence. The StB program has set new direction for the passenger processes through projects like NDC, OneOrder and more recently OneID that set the way forward for Biometric processing.

Since the hit of Covid-19 Rob has been actively working to find a global way forward to open up borders while reducing the risk of spreading infection or having a 14 days quarantine imposed as that will adversely impact the travel business. He is working closely with IATA and WTTC taskforces on this topic

Alain St. Ange

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ITSC 2019 Speaker
Alain St. Ange Former Tourism Minister
Seychelles

Alain St.Ange is the formerTourism Minister of the Seychelles who aspired to fly the Seychelles Flag at the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) if the island’s bid for the position of Secretary General had not been abruptly withdrawn.

Alain St Ange has been working in the tourism business all his working life and in Government services since 2009. He was appointed as the Director of Marketing for Seychelles. After one year of service, he was promoted to the position of CEO of the Seychelles Tourism Board.

In 2012 the Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands Regional Organization was formed and St Ange was elected as the First President of that Regional Organisation (Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands – Seychelles, Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Comoros and Mayotte) and he remains the only one who was elected to serve a second back-to-back mandate.

Tourism was and remains St.Ange’s life and passion and he steered that industry with style and utmost devotion. It is in the 2012 Seychelles Cabinet of Ministers re-shuffle, that St Ange was appointed as Minister of Tourism and Culture and appointed by President Danny Faure in 2016 as Minister of Tourism. Civil Aviation, Ports & Marine which he resigned on 28 December 2016 in order to pursue a candidacy as Secretary General of the World Tourism Organisation.

Alain St.Ange is a Tourism Consultant heading the “Saint Ange Consultancy” and is responsible for the widely distributed weekly “Saint Ange Tourism Report”.

Virtual summit guest says governments must enforce social distancing to ensure tourism can start

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Summit News 7th June 2020

Global hospitality will be more competitive than ever as the world reopens, with destinations urged to prepare now for the return of guests.

And for those nations that have Covid-19 under control tourism will return and it’ll happen fast, says Haitham Mattar, senior advisor at the Saudi Arabia Ministry of Tourism, who will be making his third conference appears in eight days pressing for tourism to reopen.

Mr Mattar is a guest panellist at a special virtual summit The Future of Travel & Tourism on Wednesday June 10, 2020.

He will be part of a session titled ‘The way forward: Foresights, initiatives and changing paradigms.’

Mattar has been speaking at two virtual conference last week during ATM’s three-days of virtual webinars and conferences considering the future of travel.

He told conference delegates: “Consumers, travellers, they want to book – live data from Google, Amadeus and others shows this.

“Small numbers for now, certainly, but it is happening – from July forward we will see a return in demand for destinations that have shown they have Covid-19 under control.”

He believes it is the responsility of individual governments to ensure safe, social distancing was enforced if safe travel was to be provided: “We need governments to rigorously enforce physical distancing and other measures to rebuild confidence – but guests will return.

THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM VIRTUAL CONFERENCE June 10, 2020 DETAILS & REGISTRATION

“This is going to be a great opportunity for countries to get back into the market.

“Destinations must have a plan, must have a recovery strategy and must start negotiations with online travel agencies to speak to consumers who are ready to travel.”

His remarks come as countries across the world began to relax strict lockdowns introdcued earlier this year in an effort to save lives and slow the spread of the virus.

Mattar says destinations must be ready for the gradual return of hospitality he shares the belief that domestic tourism is the initial key to unlocking the hospitality sector, ensuring jobs are not lost and facilities can survive.

“We will see a three-phase approach,” he said, “beginning with domestic travel.

“Where you have scale, such as the USA, Germany and others, domestic travellers will be the first to return to market.

“Then regional travel, before going global.”

He continued: “We need to take action today to get people arriving in three months’ time.

“Every destination will reopen, and it will be very competitive once the reopening does start, and people need to prepare today.”

His thoughts were echoed by WTTC ambassador, Gerald Lawless, at the conference on the first day of ATM 2020.

Register Free to be part of the virtual summit on June 10, 2020, begins 9.15am (GMT+1) HERE

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theFuture of Travel June 10

REGISTER The ITIC-WTM virtual conference is FREE to attend online.

It focuses on three themes:

1. Health: dealing with Covid-19, and how we restore travellers’ confidence and rebuild business.

2. Investment: understanding the financial mechanisms that allow you to survive and rebuild.

3. Future: This may not be the last crisis, how can you prepare for any future global catastrophe

This virtual summit uses the latest video technology, viewable on your browser, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees in an interactive environment.

Greek MEP backs smartphone tracing apps to save European tourism…but wants more done

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Summit News 6th June 2020

Contact tracing apps in smartphones will only help the tourism sector in Europe if all countries work together, warns Elenena Kountoura MEP.

She is one of Greece’s most well-known politicians and Ms Kountoura is a guest panellist at a special virtual summit The Future of Travel & Tourism on Wednesday June 10, 2020.

Greece, faces a financial meltdown if tourism is not re-established quickly and the MEP has called for Europe-wide co-operation. 

The former Greek Minister of Tourism joined the European Parliament last year and supports smart phone tracing apps to help curb the spread of the virus. She feels the app could be part of the solution but fears older people may be excluded, like the over-50s in her own country.

“In Greece, the vulnerable population, over the age of 50, constitutes the majority and does not use smartphones at a rate of 71 per cent – to be effective 60-75 per cent of people must use them,” she said.

She was speaking in a debate last month at the European Parliament where she welcomed the introduction of tracing apps to warn people of potential dangerous contact.

“Areas such as tourism need practical solutions now. How will this be done when each EU state uses its own application? If these questions are not answered immediately, I am afraid that the use of contact tracking and warning applications becomes too little too late.”

She admitted she was sceptical about the overall ability of smartphone apps and highlighted concerns she shared with other MEPs: “We would all like to be safe, knowing that we have an application that will inform us anonymously about potential carriers of the virus. If we take into account that the use of the applications is carried out on a voluntary basis, the serious risk of the failure of the project becomes even more obvious.”

THE FUTURE OF TRAVEL & TOURISM VIRTUAL CONFERENCE June 10, 2020 DETAILS & REGISTRATION

Tourism is the major source of foreign income in her home country and she said that if contact-tracing apps are introduced by individual countries it would fail to help the tourism sector recover quickly enough.

Greece, with a population of 9m, has escaped the fate of many European countries with fewer that 200 deaths. But the government is desperate to reopen its supply of foreign income on which its economy, still damaged from the 2008 crash, relies so heavily.

Tourism generates over a quarter of Greece’s gross domestic product, and employs more than 400,000 people. More importantly, 90 per cent of that tourism revenue comes from foreign visitors.

Since 2008 there has been criticism that Greece has relied too heavily on tourism – with the exception of shipping (7 per cent GDP) – and the pandemic has destroyed its biggest foreign income sector.

Greece like many countries across the world, has suffered relatively few cases of Covi-19 but remains unable to receive guest and needs an urgent solution to the pandemic.

Elenena Kountoura MEP is a panellist on the midday session of the conference Rethinking Investments for Better Preparedness Against Potential Future Catastrophes.

Moderated by Peter Greenberg (CBS News), panellists will also include Hon. Edmund Bartlett, Minister of Tourism Jamaica, whose country has also suffered relatively low Covid-19 death but has been isolated from the world during the pandemic and relies heavily on tourism income.

Other panellist include Dr. Peter Tarlow, President, Safer Tourism Nicolas Mayer, PWC Industry Leader Hospitality and Tourism EMEA & Managing Partner Global Center of Excellence Tourism & Hospitality.

They will discuss investment and protection for the future. They will discuss options for building resilience and sustainability through new financing mechanisms and examine the support offered by different governments in the wake of Covid-19. What are the options for partnerships with the IMF / IFC / Government and the private sector?

Register Free to be part of the virtual summit on June 10, 2020, begins 9.15am (GMT+1) HERE

 
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theFuture of Travel June 10

REGISTER The ITIC-WTM virtual conference is FREE to attend online.

It focuses on three themes:

1. Health: dealing with Covid-19, and how we restore travellers’ confidence and rebuild business.

2. Investment: understanding the financial mechanisms that allow you to survive and rebuild.

3. Future: This may not be the last crisis, how can you prepare for any future global catastrophe

This virtual summit uses the latest video technology, viewable on your browser, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees in an interactive environment.

Ian Goldin

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ITIC Speaker
Ian Goldin
Professor of Globalisation and Development
University of Oxford

Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford, Professorial Fellow at Balliol College, Oxford University, Director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Technological and Economic Change and founding Director of the Oxford Martin School.

Ian previously was Vice President of the World Bank and the Group’s Director of Policy, after serving as Chief Executive of the Development Bank of Southern Africa and Economic Advisor to President Nelson Mandela. Ian has served as Principal Economist at the EBRD and the Director of the Trade and Sustainable Growth Programmes at the OECD Development Centre. He has a MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MA and DPhil from the University of Oxford. Goldin has been knighted by the French Government and received numerous awards.

He has published twenty-two books, with his Penguin book Terra Incognita: 100 Maps to Survive the Next 100 Years forthcoming. His previous books include Age of Discovery: Navigating the Storms of Our Second Renaissance and The Butterfly Defect, in which he predicted that a pandemic was the most likely cause of the next financial crisis. He has authored and presented three BBC Documentary Series After The Crash; Will AI Kill Development? and forthcoming The Pandemic that Changed the World. He has been featured on BBCHardTalk and all leading global media outlets.

He provides advisory and consultancy services to the IMF, UN, EU, OECD and numerous governments and companies. He has served as a non-executive Director on globally listed companies, including as the Senior Independent Director and chairing all board committees. He is Chair of the core-econ.org initiative to transform economics, and is an honorary trustee of Comic Relief and other charities. His website is https://iangoldin.org/ and twitter address @ian_goldin.

Meet the Professor who predicted the pandemic FIVE years ago. But what do we do now?

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Professor Ian Goldin, Oxford Martin School.jpg By Oxford Martin School – http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/people/1, CC BY 4.0, Link

Summit News 5th June 2020

The man who accurately forecast the global pandemic five years ago says he hopes his predictions are wrong and that the world “learns from this and that it’s a wake up call for future prevention.”

Professor Ian Goldin is Professor of Globalisation and Development at the University of Oxford and the Director of the Oxford Martin Programme. He has agreed to be a guest and moderator at The Future of Travel & Tourism on Wednesday June 10, 2020

“A pandemic was inevitable as we connect more, we live in bigger cities, we live near airports, whch are not only the spreader of the goods of globalisation but also the bads and contagion would cascade.”

As far back as February his year the Professor was warning the world’s governments of the dangers, not only to people’s health but to the potential collapse of the international economy. That included the need to protect businesses from bankrupcy, stop travel and work, internationally to prevent a catastrophe.

His book The Butterfly Defect, published in 2015, clearly warned of the global consequence of a pandemic.

“Pandemics are the biggest killers of humanity and I believed that this continued to be a major threat that was being ignored,” he said.

He said globalisation and interconnectivity is to blame ‘Spanish flu spread slowly – today a virus can be anywhere in the world within 36 hours’.

But he is not against globalisation saying: “A consequence has been better things for more people, that’s why two billion people have been lifted out of poverty.” But the fast spread of Covid-19 proves that the world needs to prepare and manage more effectively, he says, repeatedly saying governments – especially in the West – must learn lessons from something they all knew was a real danger but chose to ignore.

“I felt very strongly, and still do, a pandemic, like this one, is the biggest threat to our financial systems and economies. In an interview with the BBC Hardtalk programme on March 13 – as Italy’s crisis became clear but Western nations including he UK where he is based were weeks away from lockdown- he foresaw much of what we have lived through this past 10 weeks.

“This is about their (risks from pandemics) management and I think we’re on a cliff’s edge,” he told BBC Hardtalk on March 13.

In March Prof Goldin warned those first financial commitments made by governments  were not enough. For example, the UK had pledged £30bn and Prof Goldin warned “that was not enough”, comparing it with the UK’s £500bn war-chest made available following the 2008 crash.

He was 100 per cent correct and the UK has increased that initial figure three fold, just to cover the half of British workers now effectively on the government payroll. From April 1 to May 19 the UK Debt Management Office (DMO) issued a staggering £90.2billion of gilt-edged stock – Government bonds, or IOUs – to help finance Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak’s vastly expensive jobs furlough scheme, and to compensate for the loss of tax revenues.

Professor Goldin takes no pleasure from his predictions coming true. In fact he admitted he sincerely hoped he was wrong.

In March he defended the WHO – much criticised subsequently by under pressure US President Donald Trump – as ‘starved of resource and legitimacy’ saying it will need far more financial support to stop the next pandemic. He says the WHO is far weaker than it was in 2008 when the world came together to plan recovery, when US President Bush sat with his opposite number in China to plan a recovery.  Since then the world is more fragmented and international relations between countries have plummeted – compare China-USA relations with 2008.

“This is reinforced by the weakness of the World Health Organization – because their shareholders won’t give the capital and mandate they require,” Goldin told Spearwms.com. “There are positive signs at national level, but at the international level there’s a very worrying, almost deafening silence.”

He also says that the breaking of global supply chains, which were already being slowly broken because of increased robotics and technology, will increase. Countries will move away from reliance and there will be reassessment of China’s central production role.

When the BBC interviewer in early March suggested his dark prediction may be “scaremongering” Prof Goldin said he was merely ‘raising the red flag’. “I want governments to act and learn for the future,” he said.

Now 10 weeks later he is recognised as one of the world’s top authorities. This week he was the first port of call for Spearswms.com when it tried to predict what the world will be like in 2025.

“By 2025 we will have a vaccine, hopefully well before that,” he told Spears WMS. “We will all have our vaccination cards and be showing them at airports. An optimistic picture is that all our phones will have pathogen sensors in them and will be an early surveillance system globally and we’ll have a Nato-equivalent for pandemics in all the regions that can respond and will be responding to threats.

“By 2025 we’ll have a ‘global vaccination capability with DNA sequencing that will reduce the threat.”

He told Spears that the battle against coronavirus will have some unexpected benefits, too: “When people look back at this period, they’re going to say: ‘Yes, we woke up. We reformed the system, we now have a much safer world and in learning to deal with coronavirus in 2020 we’ve also learned to cooperate with climate change and financial crises and cyber threats and antibiotic resistance and the world is a safer, better place’.”

Professor Ian Goldin is a guest and moderator at a ‘The Future of Travel & Tourism” on Wednesday, June 10, 2020, overseeing the session ‘Planning for the future: Understanding globalisation in the post Covid-19 world and the investment measures needed to boost recovery of the global travel and tourism industry’.

“We are honoured to have Professor Golden join us for our summit and recognise his insight into pandemics and the financial effects will be hugely beneficial to our global audience,” said Ibrahim Ayoub, CEO of organiser ITIC in parneship with WTM.

Hear Professor Goldin’s BBC interview with Hardtalk HERE

Read Professor Goldin’s interview with Spear WMS cover story HERE

Register Free to be part of the virtual summit on June 10, 2020, begins 9.15am (GMT+1) HERE

 
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theFuture of Travel June 10 REGISTER The ITIC-WTM virtual conference is FREE to attend online. It focuses on three themes: 1. Health: dealing with Covid-19, and how we restore travellers’ confidence and rebuild business. 2. Investment: understanding the financial mechanisms that allow you to survive and rebuild. 3. Future: This may not be the last crisis, how can you prepare for any future global catastrophe This virtual summit uses the latest video technology, viewable on your browser, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees in an interactive environment.

Reopening Jamaica to travellers is “a matter of economic life or death”

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Minister of Tourism Jamiaca Edmund Bartlett

NEWS 5th June 2020

Jamaica is reopening its borders to visitors from June 15 – because it has to, according to the country’s Tourism Minister Hon Edmund Bartlett MP.

“The phased reopening of our borders to international travellers on June 15 is not just about tourism, it is a matter of economic life or death.

He said: “We need to get the over 350,000 pandemic-displaced workers back to work. We need to provide some salvation to the many tourism enterprises that right now are at severe economic risk.”

The Caribbean island, home to three million people, has escaped the worst of Covid-19 recording just 10 deaths. But tourism is vital: worth 10 per cent of its GDP, 354,000 jobs and a whopping 50 per cent of foreign exchange earnings.

Mr Bartlett, who is a special guest panellist at The Future of Travel & Tourism Virtual Summit, on Wednesday June 10, 2020, held press conference online yesterday (June 4).

There he revealed that his ministry has calculated revenue losses between April 2020 to March 2021 is J$38.4 billion(US$273m).

The estimated overall loss to the Jamiaican economy from visitor expenditure and stopover arrivals is J$107.6 billion (US$765m).

Tourism is big business and 80 per cent of that cash goes to small business – the island’s restaurants, craft vendors, tour & transportation operators, attractions, bars and duty-free shops.

He said: “You can see, therefore, that the phased reopening of our borders to international travelers on June 15 is not just about tourism. It is a matter of economic life or death.

“As I say this, I am mindful of the public sentiment that we are moving too fast, and this will pose a health risk to the Jamaican people. I want to assure you that the reopening will be carried out safely and in a way that protects our frontline tourism workers, Jamaican citizens, and our visitors.  As our Prime Minister stresses, we must continue to protect lives while securing our livelihoods.”

The Minister pledged to ensure the safety of Jamicans with extensive testing of new arrivals. 

“Therefore, let me underscore that non-nationals who enter from June 15 will be subject to the same health and risk screening process (temperature checks, symptoms observation) as nationals.”

Based on screening, if assessed to be high risk, they will be required to self-quarantine at their destination until the results are available.

As announced previously, tourism’s reopening is being guided by a five-point recovery strategy:

  1. Robust health and security protocols that will withstand local and international scrutiny.
  2. Training all sectors to manage protocols and new behavioral pattern moving forward.
  3. Strategies around COVID security infrastructure (PPEs, masks, infrared machines, etc.).
  4. Communication with the local and international markets about reopening.
  5. A staggered approach to reopening/managing risk in a structured way.

The Tourism Product Development Company (TPDCo) collaborated with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) to formulate these tourism protocols.

Read more on this story at eTurbonews.com

ITIC has organised its largest Virtual Conference in a week’s time on Wednesday June 10 – you can attend and registration is free. The Future of Travel & Tourism, Financial Strategies for the Recovery.
 
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theFuture of Travel June 10 REGISTER The ITIC-WTM virtual conference is FREE to attend online.

It focuses on three themes:

1. Health: dealing with Covid-19, and how we restore travellers’ confidence and rebuild business.

2. Investment: understanding the financial mechanisms that allow you to survive and rebuild.

3. Future: This may not be the last crisis, how can you prepare for any future global catastrophe

This virtual summit uses the latest video technology, viewable on your browser, will bring together more than 2,000 attendees in an interactive environment.

PRESS RELEASE: WTM London partners with ITIC Virtual Summit

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WTM London partners with ITIC Virtual Summit

WTM London partners with ITIC Virtual Summit
 

A virtual conference called “The Future Of Travel & Tourism – Financial Strategies for Recovery” takes place on Wednesday June 10th from 9:15am to 2:15pm (BST).

Organised by the International Tourism and Investment Conference (ITIC) in partnership with WTM London, the virtual summit considers how this vital economic sector will emerge from COVID-19 and what is needed to ensure growth.

Travel, tourism and hospitality are at the centre of an unprecedented business collapse as the COVID-19 pandemic changed the world forever in 2020.

Businesses that depend on tourism and travel are desperate to reopen and begin to operate under the “new normal”.

Under the chairmanship of Dr Taleb Rifai, former Secretary General of UNWTO, the virtual summit will feature prominent and inspirational speakers.

It will bring together experts from the health sector, tourism ministers, policy-makers and leaders from the travel and tourism sector – connecting them with investors, investment bankers and private equity firms to discuss financial solutions and preparedness to reopen the tourism industry for a better future.

WTM London’s Senior Exhibition Director, Simon Press, says:

“WTM London is honoured to partner with ITIC and is committed to support the travel industry as it adapts to the unique challenges of COVID and prepares for recovery – providing platforms for the global travel and tourism industry to share insights.

“Annually, WTM London connects travel industry professionals from 182 countries, offering unrivalled commercial opportunities and business insights and ITIC Virtual Summit will carry on our conversation on how to reopen the tourism industry.

“In 2019, our show contributed to a total of £3.75 billion worth of travel industry business deals being signed. This year, the recovery of the travel industry starts at WTM London.

“Our conversation on June 10 will gather great minds discussing the trends that will determine the future of the tourism industry.”

ITIC Virtual Summit focuses on three themes:

  • Health: dealing with Covid-19, and how we restore travellers’ confidence and rebuild business.
  • Investment: understanding the financial mechanisms that allow you to survive and rebuild.
  • Future: This may not be the last crisis, how can you prepare for any future global catastrophe

The current status of tourism will be discussed, unravelling how the responses of governments and the tourism industry in different countries have been effective and analysing the intricacies of the financial support plans already introduced.

Leading health experts have been invited to participate in the panel discussions to shed new light about the latest vaccine research that could accelerate the recovery of the travel and tourism industry by restoring business confidence.

The thought-provoking themes on the agenda are geared towards the future paradigm shift. Enriching panel discussions will debate how destinations can secure sustainable investment and how businesses should reposition for recovery when the pandemic comes under control.

Former Secretary General of UNWTO, Dr. Taleb Rifai says:

“We live today in unusual and difficult times. Who would have imagined just three months ago that we would only be able to hold an event like this online?

“We are living in a world where uncertainty has prompted so much fear and panic that no one knows what tomorrow will bring.

“As the pandemic threat became clear, governments intervened aggressively – though to varying degrees. Initially the focus was on containment and healthcare for the infected.

“But as the long-term threat became clear, the focus moved to life after containment which, without a cure, is also a vital part of living.

“As we emerge from this initial phase we must aim for life with dignity, prosperity and hope. So, there is a great need to support economic recovery as a matter of urgency and also to implement measures that restore confidence and trust in the hearts and minds of people.

“This conference is, therefore, very timely and ITIC and WTM London have joined hands to bring this Virtual Summit to you. We must start planning for tomorrow and we must introduce ways and means of bringing back a sense of normality to the world in which we live.

“This is an important summit not just because of the subject matters but more significantly, its timing.

“I am sure we are all going to come out of this summit a little more confident about the direction in which we are headed.”

Join us and register – EVENTBRITE.

For more information contact [email protected] or visit our conference website https://itic.uk/investment-summit-home/.