PATA's Crisis Rapid Recovery Taskforce goes into ready mode

After setting up a Rapid Recovery Task Force (PRRT) in 2011, PATA is now ready to deploy the initiative should a crisis take place in Asia-Pacific.

Speaking at the official launch of the PRRT at PATA’s head office in Bangkok yesterday, Bert van Walbeek, chairman of PATA Thailand Chapter, said: “Everything about the PRRT was on a trial basis until now. Today we are 100 per cent ready to go.” 

The fledgling PRRT has already been “helping behind the scenes” in relaying important travel advisories, contending biased media reports and helping rebuild consumer confidence, van Walbeek pointed out, while recent crises such as the Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 2011 and the Thailand flood crisis in 2011 have also provided learning points for the task force to refine its communication strategy.

“We were in the beginning very much focused on websites but now we realised that social media sites like Twitter and Facebook are the fastest ways to communicate,” he remarked.

PATA CEO Martin J Craigs agreed: “Countering misleading information in media and social media is a key element of the PRRT brief. Perception is reality. The visitor economies in the PATA region have been made painfully aware of this on numerous occasions.” Apart from the “reactive” post-crisis strategies, PATA would also take “proactive” steps to raise crisis management readiness among its members, said van Walbeek.

PATA’s Bounce Back crisis management booklet, which is already available in Chinese and Japanese, will soon be translated into different South-east Asian languages such as Thai, Bahasa and Vietnamese. Meanwhile, training modules will be ready by mid-2013 and will be presented during PATA Travel Mart 2013 in Chengdu. 

Led by van Walbeek, other members of the PRRT include David Beirman, senior lecturer, University of Technology, Sydney; Emma Cashmore, managing director, Axis Travel Marketing, London; Martin J Craigs, PATA CEO, Bangkok; Walt Judas, vice president marketing communications, Tourism Vancouver; Alexander Kesper, security and safety executive, Bali Hotels Association; Ken Scott, managing director, ScottAsia Communications, Bangkok; and Rick Vogel, president, Include, Tokyo.

-TTG Asia.