Fifty-eight participants from 11 Pacific Island Countries have enrolled into the Pacific Tourism Organisation’s (SPTO) Tourism SME Recovery Toolkit training of trainers.
Participants also include tourism stakeholders from National Tourism Organisations, tourism businesses, local training providers, training associations and other government agencies.
The online training is based on seven modules of the SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit. Each module has a set of assignments that each participant has to complete in order to progress the next module.
In support of a resilient and inclusive recovery process in the tourism sector, the SPTO SME Recovery Toolkit’, was developed through a collaboration between the SPTO, the Embassy of the United States of America and the Travel Foundation.
Launched in October 2021, the toolkit was designed with the guidance and input of a regional working group comprising of representatives from Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Tonga and Tuvalu. The toolkit is designed to provide practical guidance to improve operational models and successfully connect tourism businesses to key source markets.
In acknowledging the importance of the Tourism SME Recovery Toolkit training of trainers, SPTO CEO Christopher Cocker mentioned that the customized training promoted the use of the Toolkit across the region. He added that the training adopted the Training of the Trainers (ToT) approach, focusing on local training providers at the country level as well as tourism SME support organisations who are able to facilitate trainings for the industry as needed.
“SMEs are the backbone of Pacific tourism’s private sector base, so we recognize the importance of supporting their recovery which will in turn drive overall tourism reactivation in our region. Through this online training we are also acknowledging the importance of digital transformation which is a key focus of the New Zealand government funded Pacific Tourism Digital Transformation project, which SPTO will be implementing up until 2025”, said Mr. Cocker.
