Disaster Management

>>SPEAKER 1: the ruins of a hotel an incredible moment a girl who cheated death waiting relatives
reached for her she couldn't be more than seven or eight years old she spent two days
entombed alive >>SPEAKER 2: if we were to look back sixty
years we'd see a very different world of travel and tourism. Back then over three quarters
of the world's population had never travelled more than a hundred kilometres from their
own home town. Today in 2010 with a world population of over six and a half billion,
four and a half billion make domestic journeys far away from their homes and nearly a billion
travel across international boreders. Amazingly of the four and a half billion domestic journeys
made nearly two billion of these are in China alone. So the twenty first century has already
been described by some as the century of travel. Yet at the same time that this incredible
increase in travel and tourism is taking place, the very destinations that we travel to appear
to be faced with a growing threat of disasters. Take for example natural disasters. Floods,
earthquakes, hurricanes and of course volcanoes. Not only withere frightening pyroclastic flow
but also their huge smoke fumes affecting world airlines and world travel. Then there
are man made disasters, although the correct term is human instigated because women can
create disasters as well as men. There are transportation accidents on land, sea and
in the air. Chemical and toxic releases that spread rapidly across populated areas and
pandemics such as swine flu, avian flu and SARS. Then there's a third category we ought
to consider which is acts of terrorism. Although this is rightly the preserve of intelligence
services around the world the immediate impact of the terrorist incident still requires many
of the same types of response as a man made or natural disaster so I think it's fair to
say that both tourism and disaster management are rapidly becoming central features of the
twenty first century in which we live. Now here at Bournemouth University's disaster
management centre we're working in many countries around the world to assist and train governments
and their agencies to develop disaster management strategies. We work with government agencies,
emergency services, military, non-governmental organisations and commercial businesses and
there is certainly no lack of terminology out there, for example what do you mean by
the word disaster? what's the difference between a disaster and an emergency or a crisis? What
does the term major incident management mean? Now here is the term disaster defined by the
United Nations international strategy for disaster reduction and you'll see from this
definition that a disaster affects people, property and the environment in such a way
that exceeds the ability of the affected community to cope using its own resources. Now this
is a useful definition because it allows for disasters to happen at different levels for
example at a local level or a provincial level or the national level, even the international
level. When studying tourism and disasters we consider disaster management as a continuum
where the period leading up to a disaster is one where governments and the tourism industry
work together to reduce the risk of disaster and they seek to integrate their plans to
respond and recover. Then when the disaster strikes these agencies come together to provide
relief, identify the dead, provide shelter and medical assistance to the living. For
tourists this of course means also compatriation, finding loved ones, sorting out lost passports,
dealing with embassies, getting there I.D's back and money. For tourism as a business
it means resilience, rapid recovery and maintaining the reputation, brand of the tourism product.
Now a vital question facing all governements around the world is this; who do we put in
charge of managing disasters in our country, which ministry does it properly belong to?
You could say that each ministry could be a rightful home depending on what type of
disaster you're talking about. Environment for flooding, health for pandemics, housing
for earthquakes, transport for air accidents, and so on. Some governments even question
whether a ministry really is the right place for a national disaster management strategy.
Maybe it should be above a governemnt ministry sitting in an office of the President or the
Prime Minister, closer to the seat of power. Certainly there is no one size fits all and
tourism organisations will find themselves dealing with different agencies, different
ministries depending upon the country in which they operate. By the way, there are similar
questions to be asked within any commercial business or enterprise. If your tourism business
is divided into departments such as logistics, operations, HR, finance which do you put in
charge of dealing with disasters? Then we need to ask if a policy or a plan for disasters
actually exists within the country. How does it work? What are the systems and processes
it's provided for? For example, at the scene of a disaster with the prescence of so many
responders; police, firemen, ambulance men, civil protection, military, local authorities,
hotel staff, travel agents, who's ulitmately in charge? And who's responsible for identifying
the dead or tracking casualties who are sent to the various hospitals? Now recently we've
been working to assist the United Nation's World Tourism Organisation in an important
new study into how national emergency management agencies can better understand and meet the
needs of tourists and the tourism business. What we're seeking to do is bring two worlds
together. The world of tourism management and the world of disaster management. Both
worlds have resources that each other needs and both have needs that the other can help
meet. Travel and tourism is a vital part of national development and yets so many of the
countries that we travel to today lack the plans and policies to help them respond to
the needs of tourists and the tourism profession. So often tourism is the forgotten factor,
we believe there is now a vital need for tourism professionals and those that study tourism
management to not only understand the business of tourism but also to understand the business
of disaster management. So I want to take this opportunity to invite you to join us
on our new post graduate module in Tourism and Disaster Management and we're offering
it here at Bournemouth University. Now the course is five days long and details of the
costs and dates of the course have been given to you in the e-mail which accompanies this
video. We've also sent you a summary of the main subjects that we want to cover during
those five days and as we progress our work for the United Nations we want to keep you
up to date with our findings and recommendations for the tourism industry and disaster management
community. So please, find the time to attend this course, not only to improve your own
knowledge of tourism and disaster management, but also to contribute to the ongoing work
of intergrating disaster management with the challenges and needs of the world of tourism
and travel. I look forward very much to welcoming you on to the course. In the meantime please
don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail using the address shown on the screen. Thank you.