PECC International Virtual Seminar:

“Connectivity and Tourism Recovery from Covid-19”

May 31 - June 1, 2021
(morning in Europe, afternoon in Asia)

organized by the France Pacific Territories National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (FPTPEC)
in association with the Center for Tourism Studies in Oceania and in the Pacific (CETOP)
at the University of French Polynesia (UPF), and the Paris Peace Forum (PPF).

Among the many economic calamities brought about by the Coronavirus pandemic, the one that hit the world tourism is one of the most significant. This sector of the world economy, which lost 1300 billion USD in 2020, more than 11 times the loss recorded by the 2009 crisis (UNWTO), has been directly affected by the various lockdowns decided by governments to curb the pandemic. It brought international travel to a halt, throwing the economies most dependent on foreign tourism into catastrophic situations. Several economies in Southeast Asia, but also in the Pacific Islands, whose large sectors rely on tourism, have been hit hard by this collapse of global tourism, with sometimes dramatic consequences on local populations. According to statistics from the World Tourism Organization, 100 to 120 million direct jobs, many of them in small and medium-sized enterprises, are directly threatened by this crisis.

The rapid discovery of vaccines to protect people and stop the spread of the epidemic offers a glimmer of hope - if 2020 appears to be the year the global economy descends into a particularly devastating multi-faceted crisis, 2021 appears to be the year of hope as the vaccination of the planet progresses, and solutions emerge to enable people to live with the virus and restore trust. But the recovery remains threatened by the slow progress of vaccination, particularly in the least developed economies, and by the possible emergence of variants.

In the short and medium term, the tourism industry will have to take up two structural challenges: re-establishing international mobility, which vaccine passports seem, under certain conditions, to be able to accelerate; and restarting international tourism, in ways that combine efficiency and sustainability.

This virtual seminar aims at examining these issues and their possible solutions, first from a legal and health perspective (i.e. vaccine passport/certificates) in the short run, then with a focus on renewal, resilience and sustainability in the long run. The two daily sessions will start with a high-level roundtable discussion and will continue with individual 15-minute presentations followed by 5 minutes of questions and answers. The first day will tend to focus on the legal and health issues, but will also address regional and long-term issues, which the second day will emphasize.

“Legal and health issues and solutions (vaccine passports, …)”
The development of vaccine certificates or passports, which rely on digital technologies to allow people who have been immunized or tested negative to travel, presents an opportunity to support the revival of tourism in many regions of the world. Thailand has already announced the introduction of a vaccine passport starting in July. France is the first European economy to have adopted it, paving the way for a European solution. Many organizations, from IATA to ICC, but also private companies, have also started to develop their own solutions.

With so many proposals on the table, how can we ensure the consistency and interoperability of the various systems? How can we ensure that the criteria - health, legal, practical - are effectively harmonized? How can these solutions be implemented so that they achieve their purpose, particularly in the field of tourism, while ensuring sufficient conditions of equity? Should they finally be made permanent, or even offer health guarantee solutions for a larger number of diseases?

“Regional perspectives and long-term questions (sustainability, …)”
The implementation of solutions, such as the health passport, capable of restoring perfect mobility across the globe, is certainly a sine qua non condition for the restoration of international tourism. However, it assumes that tourism ecosystems, which have been hard hit by the economic crisis (tourism has fallen by 84% in Asia-Pacific according to the UNWTO), can effectively restart, with the necessary resources to revive their activity, whether through government support or through the implementation of development aid that aims to quickly restore the economies' ability to rely on the tourism industry. However, the modalities of this revival are important, in order to avoid the tourism failures of the past (mass tourism, destruction of ecosystems, disregard for local communities) and to accelerate the shift towards a more sustainable tourism.

How can we ensure that sufficient economic aid is available for a rapid revival of the tourism economy in the Pacific? How can we ensure that this revival will take place under sustainable conditions for the environment and local communities? What role can development aid play in this revival? What cooperation should be set up between destination countries and countries of origin to ensure the best possible management of tourist flows in the future?

Program 
(Singapore Time, UTC+8)

 Recording Link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLIkb3z3tR8DREaAVrKCJH0ZR5jZhbWnLh

Dates and Time:

Sunday, May 30, and Monday, May 31, 8pm -11pm, Tahiti & Hawaii Time (THAT/HST = UTC-10)
Monday, May 31, and Tuesday, June 1, 8am -11am, Paris Daylight Saving Time (CEST = UTC+2)
Monday, May 31, and Tuesday, June 1, 1pm - 4pm, Thailand Time (THA = UTC+7)
Monday, May 31, and Tuesday, June 1, 2pm - 5pm, Singapore Time (SGT = UTC+8)
Monday, May 31, and Tuesday, June 1, 5pm - 8pm, New Caledonia Time (NCT = UTC+11)
Monday, May 31, and Tuesday, June 1, 6pm - 9pm, New Zealand Standard & Fiji Time (NZST = UTC+12)

Scientific and organizing committee:

• Vincent Dropsy (Professor of Economics, CETOP codirector, University of French Polynesia, Chair of the PECC Committee in French Polynesia) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Jean-Luc Le Bideau (Professor of Management, University of Paris 1 Sorbonne, Vice-Chair of the France Pacific Territories National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation)
  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Mr. Marc Reverdin (Diplomatic Advisor to Pascal Lamy, Secretary General Paris Peace Forum, Secretariat of the France Pacific Territories National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.