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Tourism stakeholders are meeting in Dominica this week to develop a plan of action to deal with situations of emergencies in the tourism sector.

A one week crisis management seminar being facilitated by the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO) commenced at the Windsor Park Stadium Conference room in Roseau on Monday.

The seminar will provide participants with the knowledge and skills to develop a competent security and crisis management program for the island’s tourism sector.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Claudia Bellot during the opening ceremony said the establishment of such a plan is timely, in light of recent unfortunate incidents involving tourists visiting Dominica.

“You would all be aware that during the last quarter of 2012 we had several visitors who unfortunately passed away on our shores.”

She noted that with these incidents it was recognized that there were some gaps in the island’s current procedures in handling such situations.

Bellot believes the seminar will seek to address the island’s shortcomings in dealing with crisis situations.

“We are hoping the seminar this week will bring together tourism stakeholders and institutions, relevant government institutions and ministries to review our procedures which are currently in place and to develop the planned protocol to address areas such as the organization of an emergency response team for tourism, determine what is the chain of communication, how, when and what information is communicated to the media,” she noted.

Tourism Minister, Hon. Ian Douglas who also addressed the opening ceremony says while Dominica has been fortunate to be free of major crisis, the few incidents which have occurred have drawn much attention to the island hence the need to step up the island’s response to such crisis situations.

“We need to do all within our power to address all the salient issues by our preparation and coordinated effort. This seminar will seek to address some of the areas which need to be considered in dealing with crisis situations.”

The Minister urged participants to internalize and act upon the information disseminated.

 “I am confident that after all is said and done we will be much better prepared to act in a professional and appropriate manner in dealing with these crisis situations,” Douglas stated.

Communications Specialist, Johnson Jno. Rose is facilitating this week’s seminar. Jno. Rose is optimistic that the plan of action to be developed will lay a foundation for handling crisis situations in a professional manner.

He said, “The country’s reputation is its most valuable asset and occasionally that reputation is threatened by a crisis. It is how we respond to the crisis that will separate us from everyone else. It can make us or it can break us. We can compound the crisis or we can ease things a little bit. If we do not have the proper protocols in place and if we are not properly trained to handle we can mess up.”

Rene Aird, Vice President of the Dominica Hotel and Tourism Association (D.H.T.A), believes the development of this plan is critical to the success of the island’s tourism product.

“It is evident that the more visitors we receive, whether it is in cruise or stay over the more necessary is the need for this tourism crisis handbook. The need to have proper procedures protocol in place whenever incident occurs is important to the success of our tourism product,” said Miss Aird

The D.H.T.A representative is suggesting that timely dissemination of accurate information to the media and other relevant agencies is one of the many factors which should be considered in time of crisis.

She is also advocating that the process of transporting an injured person out of island following an accident should be less complicated.

 “Recently I had the experience of assisting a visitor to be airlifted off the island and the frustration of that process was overwhelming. Even though the emergency unit handled the situation efficiently in stabilizing the passenger, the process to get them off island was confusing. There were too many layers, unnecessary persons involved, not enough direction of whom should handle what and who should go to whom. A process that should be easy became difficult and frustrating,” explained Aird.

She believes creating a formalized process with clear ownership and time scales for action will benefit Dominica and strengthen the quality of its tourism product.

“I know we cannot eradicate crime and incidents from happening but we can have a structured way to deal with them. I am confident that at the end of this conference we will have a draft in place which can be distributed to stakeholders and interested parties, “Aird noted.

Miss Aird is advocating that all of these factors considered, finalized and included into the final plan of action now being developed.

The week long seminar will take the form of working sessions and simulation exercises. A draft plan for handling incidents will be presented to the Ministry of Tourism at the end of the week long seminar. Meanwhile the importance and role of the media in times of crisis, is a major aspect of this week’s seminar.

Jno. Rose says it is important that information disseminated during crisis situations is accurate, timely and consistent.

The crisis management seminar will come to an end on Friday.