SPTO Partners With Forwardkeys To Enhance Tourism Recovery Through Big Data And Travel Insights

29 October 2021 – The Pacific Tourism Organization (SPTO) and ForwardKeys have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop a marketing partnership that will see both organizations collaborate to better support the SPTO members in data analytics.

With SPTO’s extensive membership of 20 Pacific Island countries (PICs) and ForwardKeys’ DNA in data transformation and enrichment, the two partners share common interests in travel industry trends and data insights.

A key objective of the partnership is to share how more relevant, more timely and more actionable data can be leveraged to better monitor, manoeuvre, plan and achieve real business outcomes within the shifting travel ecosystem. 

Delivering an industry update on “Pacific Islands’ Recovery Paths, Trends and Outlook” at SPTO’s tourism webinar, Mr Jameson Wong, Vice President Strategic Clients & Partnerships APAC at ForwardKeys, commented, “The MoU underlines the role of data analytics and intelligence tools towards tourism recovery, in a time when data-led decisions and strategies are more crucial than ever”.

“The decisions that government and private sector business leaders make today may impact the organizations’ trajectories for years to come. In these unchartered waters, where the tides continue to shift and targets constantly moving, data-driven insights are no longer nice-to-haves but must-have navigational tools”, adds Mr Wong.

SPTO Chief Executive Officer, Mr Christopher Cocker, emphasized the importance of building partnerships to effectively address common challenges.

“Collaborating with like-minded partners will be pivotal for regional tourism organisations, particularly against the backdrop of the pandemic. Innovative collaboration will fast track tourism rebuilding and strengthen our collective resilience for the long run.”

“SPTO and ForwardKeys share common interests in tourism industry trends and business intelligence. The importance of timely and reliable data is undeniable. We recognize that ForwardKeys is well established in travel analytics at the global level and will value add to our members. We are very excited to work with ForwardKeys on how our members can better navigate risks and leverage opportunities through data solutions”, says Mr. Cocker.

At the webinar, ForwardKeys examined the Pacific Islands’ course towards recovery through the latest and most comprehensive data analytics, shared how the region is performing when benchmarked against other coastal destinations in other parts of the world, and how the new Pacific Islands traveller would look like.