The Dominican Republic, Barbados, the Bahamas, Jamaica, Turks and Caicos Islands are among the five nations that will initially develop the Risk Management of Natural Disasters for Sustainable Tourism in the Caribbean project that intends to define mutual strategies to confront these disasters with a special emphasis in tourism areas.

“With this workshop, the DR can elevate its quality as a destination while sending a message to tour operators and its own tourists: we are concerned about prevention and we have plans to take action in the case of emergencies”...

They will evaluate the potential scenarios that too often occur in the Caribbean region in the form of hurricanes, storms and other natural phenomenon. Their main objective will be to begin outlining efficient mechanisms and policies to deal with the negative effects of these disasters. To that end, they held a workshop with experts from influential regional organizations and the Ministry of Tourism (SECTUR).

The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), the Association of Caribbean Tourism (CTO), the CARICOM Regional Organization for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) and the University of the West Indies (WIU) will work the countries selected for this project which is being financed by the Inter-American Development Bank at a cost of around one million dollars.

Luis Simó, Undersecretary for International Affairs for the Ministry of Tourism, referred to the importance of this initiative in that it helps us preserve our natural resources and tourism attractions in the face of natural disaster. “It is a workshop of great importance especially as we confront the effects of global climate change that is just causing Caribbean waters to rise but also causing natural disasters in places and during seasons when such occurrences are least expected, such as the DR in the case of tropical storms Noel and Olga.”

In this context, he added, three weeks ago a national committee was formed to follow-up this project. The committee is made up of SECTUR, the Meteorological Office, the National Emergency Commission, the National Association of Hotels and Restaurants (Asonahores), and Tour Operators Association (Adotur), among other sectors.

This committee will guarantee “that the hotels and tourism regions will have a prevention plan that will help them confront these emergencies and to avoid and minimize the negative after-effects; a plan of action that will permit us to manage risk, disasters and multiple disasters,” that wreaked havoc during hurricane season this year and indicates that frequent natural disasters could occur again. The committee could also help to quantify the damage caused by these unexpected disasters in economic terms.

“With this workshop, the DR can elevate its quality as a destination while sending a message to tour operators and its own tourists: we are concerned about prevention and we have plans to take action in the case of emergencies,” underscored the deputy minister, Luis Simó.

Luis Simó, Undersecretary for International Affairs speaks to guests at the workshop. At the table of honor are national and international technicians.