Board for Crisis Management Centre finalised
Published:Tuesday | September 11, 2018 | 12:00 AMSyranno Baines/Gleaner Writer
The full board of governors for the soon-to-be-launched Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre has been finalised and the possibility of a two-tier management structure is now being examined, Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett has revealed.
Set to become operational in January 2019, the centre will be based at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, and will be the global hub to assist destination preparedness and management and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that affect tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods globally.
"The structure would compose of international figures and leaders, people who are interested in driving resources and searching for funds in relation to a centre like this," Bartlett said on Tuesday while providing an update on the upcoming Tourism Resilience Summit of the Americas scheduled for today at the UWI.
The summit, to be held under the theme 'Tourism Resilience through Global Synergies', is a precursor to the official launch of the centre next year.
It will seek to assess existing and emerging disruptions related to tourism management globally; examine the risk of these disruptions to the global tourism product; and identify a synergistic strategic and operational framework for mutual partnerships between and among major governmental, non-governmental, and business entities to address and develop mitigation strategies for these global disruptions.
Bartlett indicated that the board of governors would be announced today at the summit.
He argued that communication was also another key area of the centre.
"We have a huge role to play in providing adequate, real-time information, but also information that is on point because after the hurricane hits, we have to recover, and quick recovery is what is going to assist in creating stability within our space. So, we're working with an international group out of the United Kingdom that is going to help us in formulating and building that whole communication framework," he added.