Our Vision Plan ;

Would like to suggest that we focus on three main areas: safety
and security; communications; and, thirdly, promotion and
marketing. These areas are not new to the World Tourism
Organization. We have been issuing studies and organizing
seminars on these topics for years,
but they certainly take on an added importance and require
closer examination in this crisis situation.
Under the category of improving safety and security there
are three steps I would like to suggest:

1) Cooperation and sharing responsibilities: Most safety and
security measures fall outside the direct competency of the tourism
sector. However,the most important lesson crisis management
has toughed us is that the best approach to safety and security
matters is the cooperative approach. The different role players
should share responsibilities and work together
to achieve joint goals, provide information to the traveling
public and attend to their needs.

2) Manage risks - there will always be risks in tourism but they
need to be identified and managed. Providing information is one
way of managing risks,for example, the risk to travel to destinations
with tropical diseases can be minimized if information about
preventative medicines and other practical advice are provided
in advance. Similarly, information about
unsafe areas or advice on what visitors should not do could reduce risks.
Tourism information and awareness can be a protective shield.

3) Specific safety and security services - WTO advocates that
destinationsform a safety and security task force that includes
tourism authorities, local law enforcement and emergency services.
The destination safety and security task force could implement
various measures, such as emergency
telephone numbers for tourists.
The second area of importance is Communications.
The topic of crisis communications could fill an entire seminar.
I mention only three points relevant to communications
following a crisis in orderto restore confidence.

1) Be honest and transparent - Adopt a policy of full disclosure and
above all, avoid trying to cover up a problem because it will usually
come out and erode your credibility. At the same time you lose
the opportunityto give your side of the story. The hidden advantage
of a crisis is that it draws extra attention and creates an
opportunity to communicate many
positive things along the crisis information.

2) Put the crisis in context -it is important in a crisis situation
to promote a balanced perspective about events.
Distorted perceptions follow in the wake of the flood of information
and the normal, but intense, concentration on crisis-events.
The general lack of geographical knowledge
amongst the public creates a need to locate affected
destinations moreclearly so that whole regions are not negatively
affected by the perceptions.

3) Redouble communications efforts - to recuperate from a crisis,
all the normal communications and public relations initiatives
need to be increased. More media communication-with extra
news releases and press conferences
and more journalist visits; as well as trade communications
are necessary. This kind of a pro-active approach to
communications goes hand-in-hand
with the third topic: promotion and marketing.
Just like communications must be increased at a time of crisis,
marketing and promotion must become a higher priority.

1) Get the timing right - To begin with additional marketing
while the crisis is still going on, will be counter productive.
We have to read the market.
This is what we have been doing in the first part of this meeting and I
think we would all agree that it is now the right time to begin intensive
promotional activities, for individual destinations and for the tourism
industry as a whole.

2) This means more spending. Governments should increase
tourism funding for promotion and marketing purposes.
This translatesin participating in more trade fairs, more advertising,
more public relations activities and harder work.
Unfortunately this is just opposite to the way
some destinations ore reacting to the crisis.

3) It is also the right time to increase cooperation between different
role players in tourism promotion and marketing. If there is ever
a time for all sectors of the industry to work together,
it is in time of crisis. There are many kinds of cooperation
possible: public-public, public-private, and private-private cooperation.
Such cooperationcould increase the amount of money spent on
marketing. It could also contribute to a stronger generic
marketing, in other words a stronger marketing of the country or
overall destination than the selling of individual brands.
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the WTO perspective.
There is much more to be said and we look forward
to hear your views and proposals.
World Tourism Emergency Marketing Response

James B. GARCIA
WTEM General Manager