Ukraine Crisis | Tourism leaders urged to closely monitor conflict

Co-chairs of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre Edmund Bartlett and Dr Talib Rifai are urging tourism leaders to keep a close watch on the current Ukraine-Russia crisis given global implications.  

“It is critical that tourism leaders worldwide monitor the escalating activities between Russia and Ukraine with a view to preparing in the event of any fallout,” stated Bartlett, who is Jamaica's Minister of Tourism.

“It is even more imperative at this time as the world is still in a pandemic that has already battered the tourism industry. Resilience must become a core function in every tourism-dependent destinations' planning and operational infrastructure,” he added.

Russia recently launched a military assault on Ukraine leaving many dead.

Attacks and explosions have been reported throughout Ukraine, including in the capital, Kyiv with more assaults expected.

“It is these types of global events that have the greatest ability to cause disruption and displacements and why resilience and resilience building is so important,” said Rifai, who is a former Secretary General of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation.

Ukrainian ministers have reported that the Kremlin had begun a "full-scale invasion" of their country, and the fighting appears to be some of the worst conventional warfare Europe has seen since World War II. 

“The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre was established for this very reason, to help tourism dependent destinations not only mitigate these types of disruptions but survive them,” said Executive Director of the centre, Professor Lloyd Waller.

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