Tourism Resilience Centre partners with Global Council

Jamaica Tourism Minister, Hon. Edmund Bartlett, has announced that the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre has partnered with the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council, which is based in London.

The Resilience Council provides a platform for professionals from various industries to share information and best practices regarding resilience, crises and disasters – both man-made and natural – in the context of tourism.

Minister Bartlett, who made the announcement yesterday at the Second Tourism Resilience Summit of the Americas at the U.W.I Regional Headquarters, said “This partnership comes at a time when the tourism industry, which is susceptible to global disruptions, is in need of strategies to be more resilient to these disruptions.

The Global Resilience Council, will be responsible for organizing and enabling global conversations on the issues of innovation, resilience and crisis management. Locally, the GTRCM will coordinate the academic and practical programs of application and implementation.”

The Resilience council has also partnered with multiple governments around the world, including Jordan, South Africa, Jamaica, Greece and Nepal. The Council is Co-Chaired by Minister Bartlett and former United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) Secretary General, Dr. Taleb Rifai.

“The GTRCM and the Global Council will become the institutional framework that will drive global resilience and crisis management action,” added Minister Bartlett.

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre’s mission includes assisting global tourism destinations with destination preparedness, management and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that affect tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods globally. 

So far, satellite Centres have been established across the globe with the aim of building capacity for the tourism industry to respond to disruptions related to climate change, pandemics and cyber crime among others.

The just concluded Second Tourism Resilience Summit of the Americas, spearheaded by the GTRCM under the theme “Building Tourism Resilience for Sustainable Development’, examined and further explored the experience, best practices, and lessons learnt from tourism climatic resilience initiatives around the world.

Speakers for the event included: Former UNWTO Secretary General, Dr. Taleb Rifai; Professor the Hon. Ambassador Richard Bernal; UNESCO Co-Chair in Island Studies and Sustainability & MAIS Program Coordinator, Professor James Randall; CDEMA’s Executive Director, Mr. Ronald Jackson and Ingenuity Technologies CEO, Melarka Williams.

MEDIA CONTACT: Jamaica Ministry of Tourism, Corporate Communications, 64 Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, Tel: 920-4926-30, Fax: 920-4944