NEW YORK, 14 November 2019: Countries are getting better at handling the aftermath of political unrest and terrorist activity, according to the Global Resilience Summit hosted in London last week.
But experts warn that the established model for crisis preparation and recovery is now severely outdated and needs to be reviewed.
The Global Resilience Summit is an annual event organised by the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council designed to share best practice within the public and private sectors.
World Travel & Tourism CouncilChief Executive, Gloria Guevera presented a report which showed that the average time for a nation to recover from political unrest has fallen from 22 months in the recent past to just 10 months by 2019.
The average recovery rate following terrorist activity is typically eight weeks, she added.
However, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, director, Kirsi Madi, urged governments and tourism-related businesses to collaborate to update traditional models and ensure they are fit for purpose.
Madi called on all stakeholders to proactively plan their crisis response by understanding risks they are exposed to and identifying effective risk-reduction strategies.
She also reminded delegates of a UNDRR initiative known as the SENDAI Framework, which recognises that states should play the primary role in reducing disaster risk, but responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders.
The four priorities for all governments and tourism-related businesses were identified as:
Understanding disaster risk;
strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster;
investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience;
and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response.
The next Resilience Council Summit will be held in Berlin, March 2020 during the ITB.
(SOURCE: Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council.)
