Invest on people, tech and infra

CEBU, Philippines — While Asia Pacific is displaying good prospects in terms of capitalizing on its tourism advantage, it is at the same time facing huge challenges in coping with the fast changing preferences of global travelers.

In his talk during the recently concluded three-day Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) held in Cebu, economist Andrew Staples warned Asian tourism stakeholders that if they are not going to invest heavily on people as well as on technology and infrastructure, their businesses are bound to miss the otherwise great tourism potential in the region.

Staples, who is the global editorial director for “The Economist Corporate Network” based in Singapore, said that nurturing the human capital, as well as putting money in infrastructure and technology are deemed crucial to take advantage of the money in tourism.

He mentioned that it is important for stakeholders to be part of the digital world, which means offering easy access to online payment and other transactions done digitally. (FREEMAN)