THE Department of Tourism (DOT) has conducted a symposium on crisis management to prepare the concerned stakeholders for any eventuality that may arise affecting the industry.
The symposium on Tourism Crisis Management, which was held on Tuesday, September 11, in Zamboanga City, was attended by the tourism industry sector, local government units, and security sector from all over Zamboanga Peninsula.
DOT Regional Director Myra Paz Abubakar said they conducted the symposium since crisis management is integral to the successful implementation of tourism programs.
Abubakar said it is also to ensure sustainable management of tourist destinations as crisis can happen anytime and can potentially debilitate a profitable and robustly growing tourism industry.
She said that the Tourism Act of 2009 provides the imperative for the DOT to develop a crisis management framework most relevant and can be implemented by tourism industry stakeholders to mitigate possible social, economic and environmental impacts should any crisis occur.
“We deemed it timely to hold the event and call all tourism stakeholders for a meaningful exchange of ideas and deepen understanding of the PUKSA Crisis Management Flow, which the Department wishes to share to all tourism stakeholders,” she said.
PUKSA is a crisis management program tailored for the tourism industry. It will become a continuing cycle of establishing systems and procedures to be used in combating risk factors identified as PESTE: Political turmoil, Economic instabilities, Social disturbances, Technological attacks and Environmental hazards.
Among the topics they discussed were: understanding crisis management and the tourism industry; situational awareness; emergency management in the tourism industry; and, briefing on how to draft an emergency management plan.
They have also a workshop on the formulation of crisis management plan and presentation of draft of tourism crisis management plan. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)