A National Disaster Risk Management Training

The Caribbean Tourism Organization today met with stakeholders of the tourism industry in Belize to discuss the organization’s disaster risk management guide for the tourism sector. Participants trained on how to implement actions to develop responses to activities in the event of a disaster. Stakeholders were also taught how to recognize and appreciate the important considerations for gender and vulnerable groups in society. Today’s session was led by Kennedy Pemberton, Sustainable Tourism Development Consultant for the CTO.

Kennedy Pemberton

Kennedy Pemberton, Sustainable Tourism Development Consultant, C.T.O.

“We are introducing them to the new manual in terms of teaching them the types information that are available in the manual and how to use the manual. We are getting them to think about disaster risk management as the first spectrum, moving from preparedness as the first stage into response and then recovery. Particularly in the Caribbean region the challenge, hazard or risk that we would be most familiar with would be hurricanes. Risk and hazards continue to emerge in the region outside of hurricanes. We are seeing other types of hazards whether it be manmade hazards. These scenarios are all common across the Caribbean and so we are trying to get stakeholders to understand that their disaster or hazard management planning should take into account hazard that occur at the micro level. So whether it be a hazard that might be specific to their company. So a fire in an office building for instance, that’s a hazard.  Or at the national level where we would see storms and flooding. Or even in the regional level for instance we are having issues with sargassum seaweed coming into the Caribbean. That is a regional type hazard that has been affecting the tourism industry quite negatively. This type of thinking is what we are really getting the stakeholder to understand and understand that regardless of the hazard or the risk, the responses and the basic questions that should be asked in terms of crafting the response, they are very common and remain the same.”

The Caribbean Tourism Organization represents twenty-six countries across the region.