Disaster Risk Management For Coastal Tourism Destinations - DTIE

Disaster Risk Management For Coastal Tourism Destinations Responding To Climate Change
A Practical Guide For Decision Makers
3.7 Conclusions
From the preceding discussion, it is essential that all coastal tourism destinations
prioritize and participate more meaningfully in the national disaster management
and planning process. Tourism is a unique industry and in some cases, poorly
understood by those not directly involved. Yet, the industry’s emerging importance to
national economies, its dynamics and inter-connectivity, and vulnerability to natural
disasters, make disaster risk reduction an absolute necessity.
Disaster preparedness can no longer be considered as only a public sector function.
It is the responsibility of industry actors to ensure continuity of business transactions
in the shortest possible time across the entire destination following periods of crisis.
It is also their responsibility to reach across traditional boundaries and to establish
new models of cooperation with national disaster management organizations and
planners. Given the intensity and risks of current disasters, there is little other
option but to escalate the pursuit of deeper public-private partnerships in a spirit of
mutual trust and sharing as the foundation of such collaboration.
The question that immediately arises for the tourism industry is how? The following
chapters provide answers to this question in the context of organizing industry
stakeholders within regional, national and local disaster management frameworks
and using commonly-held methods and tools to understand vulnerability and
words, the industry must accept its role and responsibility for business continuity
and for building resilience.
Figure 3.4 graphically presents the typical network of inter-related activities required
for disaster risk reduction (UNISDR, 2002). For the casual reader, the main message
is that working to achieve destination resilience requires an understanding of and
a commitment to systematically undertaking the major work items in this diagram.
These are the main topics addressed in the following chapters.
42 | Disaster Risk Management Frameworks And Approaches