The significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism, together with ongoing economic, social and environmental challenges, including the accelerating climate crisis and major technological change, require a strong and coherent policy response. Governments, with the assistance of international organisations, need to support the recovery of the tourism economy, while taking the opportunity to build a stronger, fairer and more sustainable tourism economy. Opportunities to share policy issues and experiences, and agree on common priorities and directions should be pursued. This session will set the scene, and provide a valuable exposition of key policy issues to inform the remainder of the Global Forum.

Topics for discussion : ● How could governments and industry have been better prepared for this crisis? ● What response measures were most effective and what could be improved to ensure resilience to future crises? ● How may structural, product and market changes in emerging from the pandemic affect the tourism sector’s future resilience? ● How should tourism policies be reshaped to tackle the challenges and take advantage of the opportunities, and what governance and coordination structures are required to deliver them?

Topics for discussion: ● What data challenges to provide necessary and reliable information to decision makers in a timely and granular manner were revealed by the pandemic, and how were these met? ● What data innovations and statistical responses and learnings emerged to meet policy and business needs, and what learnings to strengthen the tourism data ecosystem? ● What innovative data approaches and indicators can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of policy support measures and monitor the recovery?

If you wish to connect with other participants via video chat, you will have the opportunity to participate in 5-minute speed networking sessions. When you join the session, you will be randomly connected with another participant who also wishes to network and you will be free to chat for 5 minutes. Please make sure to activate the option “Allow networking” in your profile to be able to participate.

Topics for discussion: ● What medium and long term consequences of the pandemic and structural changes for the tourism economy, affecting people, businesses and places? ● What reform measures, including policies, finance and other instruments, to build back better through the tourism ecosystem? ● How to adjust to changes in tourism consumption patterns, promote innovative and inclusive business models, address skills/labour needs, and rebuild destinations to benefit local communities? ● How to support the digital transformation of tourism, and enable all tourism stakeholders to benefit fully from digital opportunities?

Topics for discussion: ● What are the priorities in the transition to greener and more sustainable models of tourism development, and should these models be differentiated across destinations? ● What challenges and opportunities for tourism to contribute to transition to a decarbonised economy? ● How to encourage the greening of tourism business models, value chains and destinations, and transition to a more resource efficient tourism sector? ● How to strengthen tourism policy and governance frameworks, and improve the capacity of government and private sector to develop tourism sustainably?

If you wish to connect with other participants via video chat, you will have the opportunity to participate in 5-minute speed networking sessions. When you join the session, you will be randomly connected with another participant who also wishes to network and you will be free to chat for 5 minutes. Please make sure to activate the option “Allow networking” in your profile to be able to participate.

Topics for discussion: ● Are current systems of tourism data and statistics sufficient to measure the economic, environmental and social dimensions of tourism? ● What are the current gaps in tourism measurement frameworks? ● What role can new and non-conventional data sources play in filling existing and emerging data gaps, and how can these be integrated into tourism data systems? ● What approaches can be used to deliver more timely and granular data? ● What priorities and improvements to support a data-driven policy agenda, and provide a sufficient evidence base for the development and evaluation of tourism policies and actions?

Topics for discussion: ● What outlook for resilient, sustainable and inclusive tourism, and how can governments align policies and link recovery mechanisms to support this? ● What actions and priorities to safely restart travel and tourism, and boost recovery? ● What role for tourism in the transition to a decarbonised economy, and how can tourism policies align with policies and commitments on climate and other environmental challenges? ● What opportunities from digitalisation to support sustainable tourism development, and are stronger policy responses required to embrace this more widely? ● What role of data to support the tourism transformation agenda, and what policies and priorities to strengthen the tourism data infrastructure?