KATHMANDU: The Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett says April 2020 is the date earmarked to officially open the Satellite Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre in Nepal.
The announcement follows Minister Bartlett’s visit to Nepal to conclude discussions for a Memorandum of Understanding to establish the Centre.
“The establishment of this new Satellite Centre in Nepal is another exciting step towards global resilience building through research and real-time information sharing. The Centre will be located at the Tribhuvan University, which houses approximately 200,000 students who will contribute greatly to the knowledge base and development of best practices for the region,” said Minister Bartlett.
The aim of establishing global Satellite Tourism Resilience Centres is to create a network of think tanks that will develop solutions to global disruptions that impact the tourism industry. These disruptions include climatic events such as hurricanes and earthquakes, terrorism and cybercrime, among others.
Minister Bartlett added that “I am also pleased that the GTRCM has been receiving calls from other countries such as China, Cambodia, Myanmar, and India to establish more of these Satellite Centres and we will now begin discussions for the framework to open these Centres. The calls for these Centres to be established, speaks to a global need to ensure the viability of the tourism industry through resilience building.”
The establishment of the Satellite Centre in Nepal follows the recent establishment of a Satellite Centre in Kenya. Additionally, the GTRCM will also be establishing Satellite Centres in Seychelles, South Africa, Nigeria, and Morocco to expand its reach within the continent.
In highlighting the significance of this new Centre, Executive Director of the GTRCM, Professor Lloyd Waller noted that “The presence of a GTRCM in Nepal extends the reach and scope of the Centre to be able to examine and address tourism resilience issues in Asia, while at the same time enabling Centres in other regions of the world to access expertise from Asia.”
The GTRCM, which was first announced in 2017, operates in a global context that is characterized by not only new challenges but also new opportunities for tourism in an effort to improve the tourism product as well as to ensure the sustainability of tourism globally.
The ultimate purpose of the Centre is to assist destination preparedness, management, and recovery from disruptions and/or crises that impact tourism and threaten economies and livelihoods globally.
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