The need to keep up with evolving tourism industry was highlighted during the second day of the Pacific Tourism Insights Conference yesterday.

Held at Sheraton Samoa Aggie Grey’s Hotel, dynamic thought leaders from the international Tourism industry shared about the new innovative technology and enlightening concepts to take the industry to the future.

The conference covered topics that explored technological disruptions to tourism in positive and negative ways and how the tourism industry could discover how to best embrace and cope with the growth of disruptive innovations. 

Redefining communications and marketing was also a big topic and how to navigate new online trends and changing customer purchase habits. 

For instance, over the past few years, the internet has evolved from a text based medium to the new ‘TV’ with videos expected to account for 79percent of global internet traffic by 2020. 

Participants were encouraged to leverage the power of video to foster an emotional connection that would drive viewers towards a desired direction.

The Chairperson of the South Pacific Tourism Organisation and C.E.O. of  Samoa Tourism Authority, Papali’i Sonja Hunter, welcomed heads of government agencies, member of the tourism and business community

“We welcome everyone from afar to the Pacific tourism insights conference to appreciate the sharing by tourism innovative and thought leaders of the enlightening concepts, technology and everything about data in the hope and the knowing that it will create innovative partnerships and opportunities and the general empowerment of our people,” she said.

“It is also a day to acknowledge invaluable partnerships between the South Pacific Tourism Organization (S.P.T.O.) of which Samoa was also a founding member and they are still going strong, and the Pacific Asia Travel Association (P.A.T.A.)  this wonderful partnership has ensured that we have covered most of the issues that we wish to bring to our people in the Pacific to make sure that we are very much a part of the sustainable tourism development world.”