Disaster Risk Management for Coastal Tourism - Caribbean Hotel ...

Disaster Risk Management For Coastal Tourism Destinations Responding To Climate Change
A Practical Guide For Decision Makers
their constituent activities. The drill should be the only activity of the Group
on the scheduled day.
Agree on Exercise Goals and Objectives: The disaster management agency
and Coordinating Group should also agree on and write down exercise goals
objective as a measure of success.
Assign Roles and Responsibilities: Emergency response team members
should be allocated roles and responsibilities as indicated in the Emergency
Plan. If some roles and responsibilities were not captured in the plan,
exercising will help to update the plan in this regard. All levels of exercises
should be directed and monitored by the incident commander (also known
as the primary contact, emergency coordinator, or on-scene commander),
who will be the leader with overall responsibility for preparedness plan
implementation. This person’s alternate should also be active in the drill or
exercise.
Establish Ground Rules: It is good strategy to agree on basic ground rules
which will apply to all participants. Maintaining discipline in the conduct of
the exercises is paramount. Resist the temptation to adjust or amend the
preparedness plan on an ad hoc basis as revisions should be systemically
undertaken after the exercise and only as necessary. However, ensure that
Develop and Disseminate a Media Brief: It is also important that a media
strategy and brief is developed and implemented as the forerunner to the
drill in order to raise awareness at the destination before and after and as
a means of securing the media’s engagement as important partners in the
outcomes.
TIP: Key members of the Coordinating Group or emergency response
team should also have an alternative or understudy, who is equally
familiar with the roles and responsibilities of their positions. This is a
precautionary (back up) measure in the event that the main contact
is unavailable when most needed. Drill or simulation exercises must
never suffer from the absence of key personnel.
6.2.2
Conducting Simulation Exercises
Exercises should always be undertaken with the utmost seriousness and with a
sense of real life urgency. It will be up to the incident commander and lead agency
to establish this focus and attitude. The purpose is to ensure that the emergency
response team members are knowledgeable on the details of the preparedness plan,
activation points for the supporting agencies. Exercises should simulate the worst
case scenario to address, for example, disaster scenarios during the peak tourist
season.
76 | Implementing The Preparedness Plan