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
7.2
Mainstreaming Disaster Risk
Mainstreaming disaster risk reduction at the destination means creating a pervasive
culture of disaster preparedness. Although principally a public sector responsibility,
for the tourism industry, this is an imperative, which requires the cooperation and
partnership of the private sector. It also presupposes an alignment of political will
and leadership with disaster management goals and objectives, and the actions and
resources to strengthen the disaster management infrastructure and operation – all
for the purpose of achieving destination resilience. The ultimate measure of this is
not only the articulated plan of action but also the achievement of desired outcomes
in the face of disaster events.
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Mainstreaming disaster risk is about integrating the concept of comprehensive
disaster management into development policy, planning and implementation.
Countries typically have sectoral policies, programs and plans for disaster
management, tourism development, environmental management, biological diversity,
integrated coastal zone management, among others. With climate risk emerging as a
major driver of frequent and more intense natural disaster events, it has now become
essential for coastal tourism communities and destinations to integrate disaster risk
reduction objectives into routine development planning and industry operations.
On the industry public sector side, when developing risk reduction strategies for
implementation in either pre- or post-disaster scenarios at the destination, it is
imperative to link these with other government programmes, policies and activities
that have high compatibility with local risk reduction objectives. The following
strategies merit consideration by the destination to promote greater coordination
and integration with ongoing national or international initiatives:
For tourism destinations,
Coordinating Group and public sector tourism agency. It is not enough
for individual resort properties to compute their operational risk in isolation
from a wider industry analysis. Furthermore, although the UNISDR
studies globally, there is limited transfer and application of this science
and knowledge to risk-based decision making and development planning.
Community based disaster risk reduction must always be underwritten by
a culture of systematic data gathering, analysis and risk scenario planning.
This provides for better decision-making and greater predictability of the
anticipated outcomes.
Climate Adaptation and disaster risk reduction: The UNISDR reports that
progress is slow in mainstreaming climate change adaptation and risk
reduction strategies into development planning policy and programs. It
appears to be far easier for public and private sector agencies to continue
with “business-as-usual”. This approach will be costly in the long term. The
time has come for a radical shift in thinking, strategy and approach.
Traditionally hazard mitigation has focused primarily on hazards that have
a very long reoccurrence interval (e.g. 1-in-100 or 1-in-500 year storms or
earthquakes; see Chapter 4). Current mitigation strategies however, are less
relevant for the gradual effects of climate changes e.g. sea level rise, as a
slow onset hazard. It will be some time before the effects of sea level rise
substantially impact coastal areas. Taking preventative action today to limit
impact will be less costly to the coastal destination in the future.
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