TOURISM Minister Edmund Bartlett told global government leaders and policymakers in Washington, DC last Friday that there is a need for regional pandemic data centres to help to guide effective decision-making in times of crises.

Bartlett, a speaker at a high-level ministerial, closed-door event, titled “Travel, Tourism and Outbreaks — A Pandemic Simulation” at the World Bank headquarters in Washington, DC, was supporting the World Bank’s position that tourism is one of the most susceptible industries to external shocks, like pandemics.

“We can no longer ignore or give insufficient attention to the imminent threat of pandemics,” he told the meeting.

“Indeed, world tourism faces a myriad of global challenges in the event of a world pandemic. Among these are: The possibility of location quarantines, fear to use airports and other centres of mass gatherings, fear of not knowing what to do in case of illness in a foreign land, the need for speedy diagnosis and cross-border medical insurance, etcetera,” Bartlett said.

He stated that the best way to counter the threat of pandemics is to, among other things, develop comprehensive risk management and response systems based on reducing vulnerability, capacity building, better information, and institutional strengthening.

He said that such systems are necessary to counter some of the key challenges in responding to pandemics, which include targeted communication, balance of information between warning and assurance and cross-sectoral cooperation

The World Bank has already noted that fear from travellers, international travel restrictions and government measures, are some of the direct impacts that epidemics have on airlines, hotels, tour operators, and several other businesses that depend on the industry.

The bank has also pointed out that any sudden and unpredictable drop in tourist arrivals due to a disease outbreak, could have a debilitating impact on the travel and tourism sector and beyond, particularly in countries where tourism plays an important role in the economy.

“Besides the obvious toll that pandemics place on public health, they also trigger significant economic losses,” the bank has noted.

In June, the World Bank launched a “pandemic bond”, to support an emergency financing facility intended to release money quickly to fight any major health crisis.

The catastrophe bond, which will pay out depending on the size of the outbreak, its growth rate and the number of countries affected, is the first of its kind for epidemics.