WORKING SESSION
Towards a Resilient Tourism Sector
Key discussion points:

The tourism sector has experienced a remarkable growth in the past
few years, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. Today, the industry
contributes to a large percent of the global GDP and worldwide capital
investment. Moreover, for many countries, especially developing
countries, economic development relies heavily on the development
of the tourism sector which contributes substantially to the overall
economy of the country.

A resilient tourism sector is an important asset to any country,
regardless of its economic development and capacity. It generates
income to the country and provides employment for local population.
As a result, when the industry is affected, the whole community
around it suffers. This is particularly true in small island developing
states where local resorts and hotels may be owned and operated by
the local community in areas that have limited access to resources.

Many guests and visitors are not aware of the natural hazards and risks
associated in the tourist destination. This places greater pressure on
the tourism sector at the destination to inform them of disaster plans
so as to ensure their safety. As such, it is essential that the sector is
included in local and national disaster risk management policies and
plans at the destination level.

The tourism industry is one of the main sectors that will suffer most
from more frequent and severe disasters in the future, and one that
would pay a high cost for not being resilient to hazards. The private
sector is already bearing a large share of the cost and damage caused
by disasters across the globe. In many cases, hotels and resorts are
located in highly exposed areas, such as coastal zones and, if their
operation started before DRM became a national priority, they have
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not taken the risk profile of the destination into consideration and may
be built following non-resilient building codes, making them very
vulnerable. Importantly, direct and indirect losses to the tourism
sector can severely affect local and national economies, and divert
countries from sustainable development paths. This is especially the
case in small countries and countries that are largely dependent on
income from the tourism sector.

In order to address the challenges faced by the tourism sector to
strengthen its resilience, we need to significantly increase investment
in, and tourism sector access to, early warning systems and have the
tourism sector adopt comprehensive disaster risk reduction measures
and standards, so as to keep up with the rapid growth of the sector.

Today, most countries have not considered or integrated the tourism
sector into their national disaster risk reduction policies and plans.
Governments need to adopt a more holistic/comprehensive approach
to the integration of the private sector, including the tourism sector
into national DRR structures and systems, as well as national
development planning processes.

Hotel resources and skills can be useful in times of disaster and should
be considered as part of local and national disaster management
planning. Experience has shown that the tourism sector can play a key
role in the aftermath of a disaster, as hotels, resorts and other tourismbased facilities have vast resources and can serve as an immediate
shelter after disasters. Hotels can operate like a small city with power
generators, water treatment systems, reserves of food and supplies
that are vital during emergency, so they can offer significant support
during emergency situations.

Although hotels generally manage low impact hazard events quite
well, many are not so efficient in the case of large disaster events. This
may be related to several reasons, including lack of specific
requirements from governments, no incentive for hotel managers to
prioritize DRM, lack of solutions that are cost effective and simple to
implement, or lack of knowledge and resources, especially for small
independent hotels.

Key strategies to help build hotel resiliency include preparing and
implementing DRM plans, training personnel, keeping DRR plans,
operations and awareness material up to date, develop self-auditable
toolboxes, and ensure consistency between DRM plans between
hotels.
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
Additional strategies to help the tourism sector to become more
resilient is to develop specifically targeted climate warnings and 3D
models of the hazards they are exposed to. Such tools can help hotel
managers to visualize the risk and devise adapted solutions.

The post-2015 framework should recognize the need to build the
resilience of the tourism sector, and allow active participation in
response plans, protecting lives and livelihoods and promoting
sustainable development.

Recommendations and key points highlighted by the panelists
included:

Recognize and reflect the relevance and importance of involving
the private sector in an effective disaster risk management
system.

Develop targeted tools and standards so that the tourism sector
can better understand the specific risk(s) they face and define
the best solutions.

Include the tourism sector in the preparation and
implementation of local and national DRM plans, together with
other sectors.

Provide more support for SMEs who are often more vulnerable
and have less resources to develop and implement DRM plans
than large tourism sector businesses.

Recognize the resources and skills of the hotel industry, to
include them in disaster risk reduction, and also response and
recovery plans.

Build on share lessons learned from individual hotels who have
individually devised cost effective solutions to ensure the safety
of their guests and staff during a disaster.

Implement actions: “Thinking is not enough and the lack of
resources is not an excuse for doing nothing”.

The tourism sector has to move from the paradigm of “crisis
management” to a “culture of prevention”.
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