Yeah‼️ SiennyLovesDrawing 👩🏻 has attended the online webinar ~ #iEmPOWER Re-activating Economic Opportunities through Tourism ~ which hosted by World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation
This foundation was established in 2006 as the organising body of the annual World Islamic Economic Forum. The Forum serves as a focal point where country leaders, captains of industry, emerging entrepreneurs, academics & other stakeholders from the Muslim World & beyond, meet to build bridges through business. The Foundation also undertakes various capacity building programmes under the WIEF initiatives of the Businesswomen Network (WBN), Young Leaders Network (WYN), Education Trust (WET), Roundtable Series (WRT) & PowerTalk (WPT)
This webinar was specifically under the initiatives of WBN, which was introduced at the inaugural World Islamic Economic Forum in 2005. It marks the Foundation’s recognition of the importance of women’s contribution to economic growth
WBN is aimed at providing a networking platform for women entrepreneurs globally. Thus, it creating valuable connections between businesswomen from both Muslim & non-Muslim worlds, as well as empowering their business potential and widening their market reach. WBN initiatives are designed to equip women entrepreneurs with business know-how, e-commerce capabilities as well as knowledge in business growth & diversification. To this effect, WBN has initiated several entrepreneurship programmes such as WIEF Women Entrepreneurs Workshop, WIEF Regional Online Marketing Workshop, WIEF Entrepreneurial Retreat, WIEF Tea Talk, WIEF Women Entrepreneurs Strategic Workshop, WIEF Social Media Workshop for Women Entrepreneurs, WIEF Businesswomen Forum held in Gangneung, Korea & #iEmPOWER workshop series just like this that SiennyLovesDrawing has recently attended online 👍🏻👍🏻
During the COVID-19 pandemic, WBN has introduced webinar programmes with various business topics that are relevant to the current situation. The webinar programmes have helped WBN’s global participants remain actively engaged in business instead of stagnating
To date, WBN entrepreneurship programmes have continued to evolve with the times & benefitted more than 1K women from 60 countries. WBN will continue its efforts in empowering & advancing women in the economic fields at national, regional & international levels
We all know that tourism industry is 1️⃣ of the top 🔟 global industries by employment in 2022 & has become the major driver of economic growth & job creation
However, unfortunately that tourism industry has suffered a hard hit during COVID-19 pandemic due to travel restrictions & border closures. This has also affected other industries linked to tourism industry eg. hospitality, retail, manufacturing & transportation, to name a few. The 2️⃣-year economic slump caused a major halt in arrivals which fell by as much as 84%. Experts predict the tourism industry worldwide will not fully recover until 2024. This impacted many Micro-, small & medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) linked to the industry. For many developing countries, tourism industry is not only a large economic contributor to their GDP but also presents many employment opportunities for women within the myriad of sectors connected to it. Solutions & actions to step up its revival & reactivate travel may differ from country to country but 2️⃣ common catalysts that accelerate revival now are tech & collaborations. Besides effective tourism recovery plans, support from governments, private sector, civil society & individuals, are needed to change business models & governance structures that will revive tourism back to its optimum level, including all the industries linked to it & build their resilience
Panel members of this online webinar were,
- Mr Rohizam Md Yusoff, President, Digital Travel Technology Association of Malaysia (DiTTAM) & Champion of Tourism Productivity Nexus, Malaysia 🇲🇾
- Ms. Catherine Germier-Hamel, CEO Destination Mekong, Cambodia 🇰🇭
- Dr John Paolo R. Rivera, Associate Director The AIM – Dr Andrew L. Tan Center for Tourism, Philippines 🇲🇫
Moderator of this online webinar was,
- Ms Hannah Pearson, Director Pear Anderson, United Kingdom 🇬🇧