Global resilience centre offers assistance to Indonesia

Jamaica’s Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre stands ready to support Indonesia in their recovery programme, following a tsunami on that killed at least 373 people.

On Saturday, giant waves crashed into coastal towns on the islands of Sumatra and Java.

About 150 people are still missing, while more than 16,000 have been displaced.

In a letter to the Tourism Minister of the Republic of Indonesia, Arief Yahya, Bartlett, who is co-chairman of the centre, expressed the institute’s “deepest sympathies on the horrible tsunami event which claimed so many lives and destroyed so much of the human and other assets of your beautiful country.”

Yahya has indicated that his country has activated its Tourism Crisis Centre to monitor the progress of the disaster and coordinate with all relevant national boards and departments.

It is also collaborating with various stakeholders around the disaster area to collect and gather information about the affected tourism ecosystems and to provide services to the tourists. 

“Much like the Caribbean, Indonesia depends heavily on tourism to bolster the country’s economy. In fact, the country saw a 12.5 per cent increase in tourist arrivals in the first seven months of 2018 and has been growing steadily. So I know this will have a devastating financial impact on the country as they slowly recover,” said Bartlett.

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