Projects – Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre

PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES

The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) champions practical, forward-looking solutions that help destinations around the world prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises that affect tourism — from hurricanes and pandemics to cyber threats and market disruptions. Based in Jamaica with a global network spanning Africa, Canada and the Middle East, the Centre designs and implements resilience and recovery initiatives that strengthen communities, businesses and governments. Its portfolio includes hurricane recovery frameworks, regional sargassum management efforts, digital marketing capacity building for youth, cybersecurity resilience assessments, and global measurement tools like the Tourism Resilience Barometer. Through partnerships, cutting-edge research, training, crisis communications, policy advice and data analytics, GTRCMC empowers tourism stakeholders to build adaptive, sustainable and crisis-ready destinations. Our Projects and Programmes are listed below:

TOURISM CLIMATE RESILIENCE

Thought Leadership
• Book: Decoding the Future of Tourism Resilience — Waller & Bartlett (2024).
• Conference & forum presentations on climate resilience, destination readiness, crisis recovery, climate risk management.
• Tourism Resilience Barometer — a global resilience measurement/readiness framework for destinations.
• GTRCMC insights and advocacy on leveraging AI and advanced technologies for climate preparedness.

Projects — Current / Recent
• Support to the Government of Jamaica and Government of the Philippines — hurricane recovery support materials for microenterprise entrepreneurs; support to taskforces/committees (Oct 2025–present).
• Airbnb / GTRCMC Climate Resilience KAP (Project C-KAP) — building climate knowledge, attitudes and awareness across the Caribbean.
• Sargassum Management Project — regional initiative to reduce sargassum impacts on coastal tourism and livelihoods.
• Irma & Maria Recovery Initiative — hurricane recovery support to The Bahamas, Cayman Islands and Caribbean destinations.
• Hurricane Melissa Tourism Resilience & Recovery Initiative — structured framework for damage assessment, community support, infrastructure readiness, transition to recovery.

Projects — Future / Pipeline
• Climate Awareness for Tourism SMEs (GenAI language solution; voice-first, low-bandwidth).
• NEW: Caribbean Tourism Climate Risk Early-Warning & Business Continuity Dashboard (corporate/donor-ready).
• NEW: Climate-Smart Tourism Retrofit & Finance/Insurance Readiness Programme (corporate/donor-ready).

TOURISM ENTREPRENEURIAL RESILIENCE

Thought Leadership
• Book: Decoding the Future of Tourism Resilience — Waller & Bartlett (2024).
• Conference & forum presentations on MSME resilience, livelihoods, digital transformation, inclusive growth and entrepreneurship in tourism.
• GTRCMC Academy capacity-building curricula, toolkits and short courses supporting MSMEs and entrepreneurs.

Projects — Current / Recent
• Resilient Pathways — training and capacity building for tourism MSMEs in hurricane preparedness using a GenAI language solution.
• 2024 Youth Digital Marketing Training — trained 50 young entrepreneurs to support the tourism sector; direct employability and ~300 indirect jobs supported.
• Community Tourism Digital Marketing Project — national initiative training youth to provide digital marketing support to tourism MSMEs.
• Support to the Government of Jamaica & Kenya — development of tourism linkages projects to support entrepreneurship and training outcomes (policy, research, capacity building under the Jamaica-Kenya MOU).
• East Africa Tourism Resilience Initiatives — tourism product inventories, crisis mapping, economic impact studies, diversification frameworks, digitizing mapping for MSMEs and stakeholders across Kenya & region.

Projects — Future / Pipeline
• Jamaica GenAI BRIDGE — boosting inclusive resilient development through GenAI + entrepreneurship in tourism; training at-risk youth to create global tourism solutions.
• NEW (Agriculture-to-tourism): Climate-Smart Agri-to-Tourism Supply & Food Security Project — strengthens local sourcing pipelines for tourism.
• NEW (Linkages & Poverty reduction): Tourism Linkages & Poverty Reduction Accelerator — supplier onboarding, quality/compliance support, supply chain integration.
• NEW (Community tourism): Community-Owned Experience Incubator — supports communities to develop, own and operate attractions, tours, cultural foods, storytelling — driving job creation, poverty reduction, local economic ownership.

TOURISM DIGITAL RESILIENCE

Thought Leadership
• Book: Decoding the Future of Tourism Resilience — Waller & Bartlett (2024).
• Presentations on digital transformation, AI readiness for tourism, data innovation for resilience.
• Cybersecurity readiness guidance and digital continuity frameworks supporting MSMEs.

Projects — Current / Recent
• Training in GenAI for Tourism — practical use cases for SMEs and organisations to enhance productivity, service quality, resilience.
• Tourism Cybersecurity Resilience Project — assessing and strengthening cybersecurity readiness among tourism enterprises.
• Chemonics + GTRCMC partnership — MOU to strengthen tourism resilience through sustainable development practice, research, joint implementation and capacity building.

Projects — Future / Pipeline
• Tourism Digital Resilience Hub for MSMEs (GenAI + cybersecurity + data) — packaged readiness assessments, tools, training and coaching.
• NEW: Voice-First Microenterprise Business Coach (SIDS-localized) — plain-language operational guidance for pricing, records, compliance and marketing.
• NEW: GenAI Content-to-Commerce Studio for tourism microbusinesses — auto-generate listings, menus, ads, itineraries, translations and customer communication.
• NEW: GenAI Procurement/Grant/Tender Navigator + Proposal Builder — organic opportunity discovery and compliant proposal generation tool.

TOURISM PANDEMIC RESILIENCE

Thought Leadership
• Book: Tourism Resilience and Recovery for Global Sustainability and Development: Navigating COVID-19 and the Future — Waller & Bartlett (2022).
• Conference & forum presentations on pandemic continuity, outbreak response, future shocks and tourism continuity planning.
• Resilience Corridor concept model — Caribbean approach to sustaining tourism activity during health shocks.
• Advocacy and convening aligned with Global Tourism Resilience Day (Feb 17) under UN designation.

Projects — Current / Recent
• COVID-19 Social Awareness Campaign — awareness and protective measures messaging for tourism workers.
• Building Vaccine Confidence — global initiative focused on confidence among tourism workforce.
• Caribbean COVID-19 Taskforce — regional evaluation and recovery guidance.
• COVID-19 Resilient Tourism Corridor — safe reopening and continuity model partnership (recognised via resilience awards).

Projects — Future / Pipeline
• Destination Health Security Readiness Framework + Simulation Exercises — destination-wide outbreak readi ness protocols, surge planning, tabletop exercises, risk communications toolkits.
• Tourism SME Pandemic Continuity Toolkit & Rapid Pivot Support — SOPs, digital pivot blueprints and continuity finance pathways for MSMEs.

Multi-Regional Initiatives / Partnerships

• Global Tourism Resilience Conference & Expo — annual convening aligned with Global Tourism Resilience Day (Feb 17), focused on digital and ecosystem transformation, resilience practice and cross-sector collaboration. Annually since 2018

• Ed Bartlett Lecture Series — global webinar series on resilience topics for tourism stakeholders. Anually since 2018
• GTRCMC Academic Chair — academic leadership position to advance research, partnerships, and capacity building.
• Satellite Centres Network — GTRCMC centres and affiliate organizations that we support in Jamaica, Kenya, and plans for others in Kenya, Malta, Bulgaria, Oman, Japan, Costa Rica and more.
• World Travel Awards Recognition — GTRCMC has won several global awards since 2018 the last being a Tourism Resilience Award (2024) for excellence in resilience strategy and leadership.
• Partnership with Governments— we have several MOUs with various governments world wide.