Media WriterA new book titled ‘Tourism Resilience and Recovery for Global Sustainability and development – Navigating COVID-19 and the Future’, is to be used a guide for destinations seeking to recover from the devastating effects of the pandemic. The book, edited by Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett and Professor Lloyd Waller, Executive Director of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, has a series of relevant topics related to the pandemic that can be used to help accelerate tourism recovery.
“COVID-19 hit us as the first ever event arguably that impacted the entire world simultaneously, so we had no blueprint or roadmap to guide us on how to manage it. We all were struggling together to understand what had hit us. What we are conscious of is the need to build capacity and that is what this book is about.
The book is about being able to track, prepare and mitigate against disruptions such as the pandemic and also to recover and thrive,” said Minister of Tourism, Hon Edmund Bartlett.
As part of the Centre’s efforts to build tourism resilience, the book specifically looks at key topics such as conceptualizing resilience; the role of ICTs in the recovery from the pandemic; economic shock and unparalleled opportunity in the pandemic.
Notable academics, Professor Ian Boxill, Deputy Principal of the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona and Professor Hillary Beckles, Vice Chancellor of the UWI, Mona, gave glowing endorsements of the book as ‘timely’ and ‘relevant’.
“The book is the first of its kind in the tourism space which brings together academics, policy makers, technocrats, tourism entrepreneurs as well as workers,” said Professor Waller.
Tourism Resilience and Recovery for Global Sustainability and development – Navigating CVID-19 and the Future, which is published by Ian Randle publishers and was launched at the Terra Nova Hotel in Kingston yesterday, is now out on Amazon.
The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, headquartered in Jamaica, was the first academic resource centre dedicated to addressing crises and resilience for the travel industry of the region. The GTRCMC assists destinations in preparedness, management and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that impact tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods globally. Since its inception in 2018, several satellite Centres have been launched in Kenya, Nigeria and Costa Rica. Others are in the process of being rolled out in Jordan, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria. gtrcmc.org
