Last year, the United Nations launched Global Tourism Resilience Day, which takes place annually on February 17th – next weekend. Global Tourism Resilience Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly on 6th February in resolution A/RES/77/269 The resolution emphasised ‘the need to foster resilient tourism development to deal with shocks, taking into account the vulnerability of the tourism sector to emergencies, and for Member States to develop national strategies for rehabilitation after disruptions, including through private-public cooperation and the diversification of activities and products.” The General Assembly resolution stressed “that the costs of all the activities that may arise from the implementation of the present resolution should be met through voluntary contributions, including from the private sector.”
There had been a high-level thematic debate on tourism, on the theme “Putting sustainable and resilient tourism at the heart of an inclusive recovery” in May 2022 and back in 2010 a UNWTO Tourism Resilience Committee met but then faded away. Similarly, the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council met in 2020 but has since also faded away.
Since then, the problems have increased in number and intensity, often occurring yearly. Climate change has brought flooding, drought, wildfires and storms. The Covid pandemic was not the first, but it had a global impact over consecutive years. Civil unrest, terrorism and wars, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes all pose major challenges for the travel and tourism sector, and the scale of these threats makes it more difficult for governments and international aid agencies to support recovery. Different threats require very different approaches, but they all require planning and investment
The Adventure Travel Trade Association addressed resilience back in 2020 “Preparing for the Unexpected” and advised its members to:
- Obtain information from trusted sources
- Provide guests with options
- Diversify their business
- Prepare financially
- Have a crisis management plan
- Rely on relationships to get them through.
This year’s Tourism Resilience Day theme is Decoding the Future of Tourism Resilience, focusing on understanding and preparing for the challenges that lie ahead in the tourism industry.” The Jamaican Ministry of Tourism has, with the Global Tourism and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC), organised a meeting for the Americas in Jamaica and for Africa in Nairobi. The GTRCMC is based in universities and is developing four streams of work: climate, entrepreneurial, security and pandemic resilience. It is planning to launch a Global Tourism Resilience Institute based at the University of the West Indies, offering technology solutions, consultancy, training and capacity building, research and data analytics and networking opportunities.
From the outset, the business case for Responsible Tourism emphasised the licence to operate, local sourcing, avoiding dependency on tourism at the destination level, working to address community priorities and partnership in the supply chain and with competitors in the destination. Sustainability requires that tourism businesses and destinations understand the importance of setting local relevant, sustainable development goals and working towards them with others in the destination, recognising that the competition is other destinations often in other countries.
On a finite earth, we face increasingly difficult challenges we need to adapt and mitigate for our sector to continue to prosper; we are paying a high price for procrastination, and delay increases our costs.
We know what needs to be done. We need to do it.
