Skift Global Forum Video: Why Small Businesses Are Essential to Tourism’s Recovery

This sponsored content was created in collaboration with a Skift partner.

In this video:

• The impact of small businesses on tourism: As the backbone of the global economy, small businesses are a critical piece of the travel sector recovery. The impact of Coronavirus on the travel industry is going to be felt for months to come, yet some positive changes are underway. Consumers are traveling, but closer to home. This crisis gives local and small businesses a greater advantage.
• Small business preparedness: A recent Visa Back to Business study highlights the dramatic shift to digital commerce in response to the pandemic. Contactless payments now sit right alongside facemasks and hand sanitizer at the checkout, and many of these new experiences are becoming habit; and
• Helping small business recovery across the globe: A look at how Visa’s Small Business Commitment, the Visa Foundation, Visa’s Small Business Street Teams, and the IFundWomen partnership are helping to drive recovery.

In June 2020, Visa committed to digitally enabling 50 million small businesses around the globe in an effort to get local communities back to business in the wake of the pandemic. As part of this effort, Visa launched a number of resources and initiatives, including Small Business Hubs in more than 20 countries to offer tools, partner offers, and tips. Visa’s Street teams visited more than 185,000 small businesses to provide “back to business” kits with new ‘tap to pay preferred’ point-of-sale materials, branding, educational resources and special offers – and these teams are now going virtual to reach as many small businesses as possible.

In addition to these efforts, Visa expanded its partnership with IFundWomen to support Black-women owned small businesses by awarding 25 $10,000 grants and annual coaching memberships to help women run and grow their businesses.

In this video conversation from Skift Global Forum, we hear from Suzan Kereere, Global Head of Merchant Sales and Acquiring, Visa and Carolyn Kremins, President at Skift, who discuss the above initiatives and provide further insight into the importance of small businesses to travel’s recovery.