News

The Ministry of Tourism is well on its way to finalizing a crisis Management plan which will assist the ministry in dealing with crisis situations.

The draft plan was formulated during a one week crisis management workshop which came to an end last Friday.

The workshop was conducted by Communications Specialist at the Caribbean Tourism Office (CTO) Dominican born Johnson Johnrose.

Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Tourism Claudia Bellot is supporting the draft plan which she says still needs some fine tuning. She is optimistic that it will take effect soon.

“We have an initial draft of our crisis management plan that we will have to do a little bit of refining of but eventually we will have a document that we can use which will be approved by all the stakeholders” Miss Bellot noted.

Miss Bellot says the crisis management plan when finalized is expected to be of great assistance to the Ministry of Tourism.

“ The crisis management plan will assist us in Tourism as we will be able to use it to remind ourselves how do we deal with not only the victims of a crisis but also their families and their friends who may be here in Dominica or who may be overseas and how do we communicate to them” she explained.

Miss Bellot had high praise for the participants for the level of interest shown during the workshop. She also had words of commendation for the facilitator of the training workshop.

“I think that all of you as participants will really endorse my sentiments when I say that he did an excellent job in delivering the training, not just in presenting the material but in ensuring that we had the practical simulation exercises which have really left us much better prepared to deal with such situations” she concluded.

Tourism Minister Hon. Ian Douglas on behalf of the Government of Dominica thanked Johnson Johnrose for the assistance given to the Ministry in putting the crisis management plan together.

Chief Executive officer of the Discover Dominica Authority Colin Piper says the timing of the development of this crisis management plan is noteworthy.

“Many may know that since World Creole Music Festival last year we have had a number of incidents against visitors to the island and so the timing of this seminar has been particularly germane. We have had to deal with some issues and so I believe should they continue to occur in the future, we will be even more prepared not only as an authority but as a destination”.

Meanwhile Communications specialist at the Caribbean Tourism Office Johnson Johnrose is encouraged by the level of participation displayed by stakeholders during last week’s crisis management workshop.

“I was very impressed with the degree of competitiveness that occurred between teams.  I was pleased with the commitment that everyone put into this program, and I can leave here quite confident that the Ministry of Tourism and other stakeholders are much better prepared to deal with the communication in the event there is a crisis” Johnson said.

Mr. Johnrose is suggesting that a town hall meeting be arranged with all stakeholders to discuss the draft plan.

“We want to ensure that once the document is complete we have to find a way to share it with all stakeholders. At the very latest during Tourism awareness month, I suggest that a town hall meeting be held with all the stakeholders to discuss the content to ensure that they are all onboard.”

The Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) communications specialist has availed himself to provide the Ministry of Tourism with further assistance if required in bringing the plan to effect.