Minister of Tourism, Edmund Bartlett, says that the new Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at Mona, will be focusing on four key deliverables.

He said that these deliverables include the establishment of an academic journal, which will be a compendium of scholarly publications, on various elements of the five segments of disruptions, and for which an editorial board has already been established, headed by Professor Lee Miles of Bournemouth University.

The other deliverables are: a compendium of best practices and a blueprint for resilience; a resilience barometer, to measure the resilience in countries and provide benchmarks to guide countries; and an academic chair at the University of West Indies (UWI) for innovation and resilience.

He said that the UWI will completely refurbish the centre, which will include a well-appointed conference room with video conference technology needed to accommodate virtual meetings, and to connect a number of board members, who operate in different parts of the world.

“It will include an office for the chairman and two other offices for deputy directors, as well as the executive director, who I am very pleased to share is Professor Lloyd Waller from the UWI,” Bartlett announced.

The minister was speaking to the media following a visit to the site of the facility, which has been newly refurbished at a cost of $27 million on the UWI’s Mona Campus and will be officially opened in the first week of October.

He said that the overall goal of the centre will be to assess (research/monitor), plan for, forecast, mitigate, and manage risks related to tourism resilience and crisis management.

“This will be achieved through five objectives – research and development, advocacy and communication, programme/project design and management, as well as Training and capacity building,” Bartlett explained.

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre will be staffed by local, regional and internationally recognised experts and professionals, in the fields of: climate management, project management, tourism management, tourism risk management, tourism crisis management, communication management, tourism marketing and branding as well as monitoring and evaluation.

It will also provide research fellowship opportunities for individuals seeking to either expand their knowledge or gain experience in tourism resilience and crisis management, through postdoctoral research, and internships for undergraduate and graduate students in fields of study related to tourism resilience and crisis management.

“We know that the presence of the first-ever Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre at the Mona campus is going to begin a whole new process of engagement in the Caribbean, in terms of global tourism activities here. We see this as a big part of the thought leadership and role that the Caribbean is now playing in global tourism,” Bartlett said.

“If we are excited about the future of tourism, the opportunities for more research, the greater appreciation of how to manage disruptions and how to identify and track these disruptions. Then, the most important factor is the recovery process,” he added.