Countries are getting better at handling the aftermath of political unrest and terrorist activity, delegates at the fourth Global Resilience Summit in London were told.
However, the established model for crisis preparation and recovery is now severely outdated, according to experts.
The Global Resilience Summit is an annual event organized by the Global Travel and Tourism Resilience Council and designed to share best practices within the public and private sectors.
Gloria Guevera, Chief Executive of the World Travel & Tourism Council, presented a report which showed that the average time for a nation to recover from political unrest has fallen from 22 months in the recent past to just 10 months in 2019.
The average recovery rate following terrorist activity is typically eight weeks, she added.
However, Kirsi Madi, Director of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, urged governments and tourism-related businesses to collaborate to update traditional models and ensure they are fit for purpose.
Madi called on all stakeholders to proactively plan their crisis response by understanding risks they are exposed to and identifying effective risk-reduction strategies.
She also reminded delegates of a UNDRR initiative known as the SENDAI Framework, which recognizes that states should play the primary role in reducing disaster risk, but responsibility should be shared with other stakeholders.
The four priorities of the initiative – understanding disaster risk; strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster; investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience; and enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response – must be priorities for all governments and tourism-related businesses, she added.
The next Resilience Council Summit will be held in Berlin, March 2020 at the ITB.
