SAN JUAN -- Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica's minister of tourism,
said that plans for the development of a Global Tourism Resilience Center,
announced during the UNWTO Global Conference in Montego Bay last
November, are moving forward.
"The center will help prepare global communities to
manage, track, communicate and recover with speed from global disasters ranging
from hurricanes, climate change and tsunamis to cyber crimes, cyber attacks,
pandemics and terrorism," Bartlett said.
The center will be located at the University of the West
Indies in Kingston, will be global in scope and will create and produce tools,
guidelines and policies to handle the recovery process from disasters man-made
or natural.
"The UNWTO will spearhead the building of the facility
and assist with solicitation of funding and resources from global partners,
including the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and the Florida Caribbean
Cruise Association (FCCA)," Bartlett said.
More information is expected to be announced at the ITB
trade show in Berlin in March, according to the minister.