Bounce Back - Pacific Asia Travel Association Thailand Chapter

IMPLEMENTING A BALANCED RECOVERY STRATEGY
The essence of any post-crisis tourism recovery program is the rebuilding of trust,
confidence and the rehabilitation of the reputation of a destination, business or
event. A successful recovery program must be targeted equally to the end user
consumer and business stakeholders.
Destinations, events and tourism businesses in a destination region depend on
tourism businesses from tourism generating regions or source markets having the
confidence to market and operate tours, events, flights, cruise and land transport
to and within the destination.
Parallel to this, is the important task of rebuilding confidence in consumers to
return. The building of a recovery alliance, as discussed earlier is as important to a
destination as it is to individual businesses.
The tourism industry has traditionally stimulated demand by undertaking the
“financial striptease”, dropping prices (often to unsustainably low levels) and
exposing the bottom line.
While this strategy is understandably popular with consumers, it imposes many
strains on businesses which occur when businesses ultimately seek to raise prices
to sustainable levels.
At this point they encounter consumer resistance. Sustainable incentives which
offer tangible benefits to stimulate consumer demand need not necessarily
involve deep discounting. Increasingly tourism businesses are favouring value
added deals for airfares, tours and accommodation.
Recovery involves the creation of a balance between positive perception and
a verifiable reality which is visible to consumers and business stakeholders.
Enabling key opinion leaders to witness destination or business rehabilitation
and report back to their stakeholders and market is usually more effective than a
glossy advertising campaign.
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