Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company and Pacific Tourism Organisation Commence Formal Collaboration to Strengthen Tourism Resilience in the Pacific

Suva Fiji: CEOs of Pacific Catastrophe Risk Insurance Company (PCRIC) and the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding marking commencement of an important collaboration intended to provide valuable support to the region’s tourism industry.

Speaking at the signing event, SPTO CEO, Chris Cocker said that the importance of the tourism sector to the region’s social and economic development has been long recognised, with many island nations heavily dependent upon the livelihoods, revenues and investment generated by the sector. Yet, severe weather events and natural disasters regularly imposed enormous financial losses upon the sector. “Our collaboration with PCRIC provides an important avenue for strengthening the institutional capacity of SPTO members in regard to disaster risk financing and allows us to explore options for facilitating industry access to some form of disaster and climate resilience insurance”. He went on to add that “This partnership highlights SPTO’s commitment to supporting its members in building resilience and securing the long-term sustainability of Pacific tourism”.

Mr. Aholotu Palu, CEO of PCRIC indicated that as a specialist provider of disaster risk financing solutions to the region for almost a decade PCRIC was well placed to work with SPTO in areas such as regional workshops and training programs, and to assist with the development of guidelines for National Tourism Offices to support tourism operators in establishing disaster insurance programs. “We are a disaster risk innovator, and we are proud to be able to offer our expertise in support of one of the most economically significant sectors across our region” he said. “Especially on the back of industry feedback from the recent Tonga National Tourism Forum, it is clear to us that we need to apply ourselves further to helping create workable solutions to the insurance conundrum many operators face throughout the region, and working with SPTO at the macro level provides a sensible pathway forward” Mr. Palu added.

Noting that PCRIC had recently made a payout against a policy designed to help fund clean-up and restoration work after cyclone damage to highly-valued coral reefs in the Northern Lau group of Islands in Fiji, Mr. Cocker indicated that it was this was the ‘out-of-the box’ approach he was keen to leverage for the benefit of the region’s tourism sector in the face of climate change.