The Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre leads a wide range of resilience, recovery, and sustainability initiatives across tourism-dependent regions. Our work supports governments, industries, and communities as they prepare for, manage, and recover from crises. Below is a curated overview of the Centre’s major assignments and interventions, reflecting our global reach and long-standing commitment to building safer and more resilient destinations.
Current Projects
Hurricane Melissa Tourism Resilience and Recovery Initiative
This initiative addresses the immediate and medium-term needs of the tourism sector following Hurricane Melissa. It supports workers, businesses and communities through targeted interventions such as livelihood assistance, recovery tools, facility readiness checklists, and monitoring frameworks. The programme helps destinations transition from emergency response to full recovery by providing practical solutions, training, and coordinated support to restore tourism operations and stabilize the wider economy.
Destination Resilience Hurricane Melissa Tourism Resilience and Recovery Initiative
This initiative focuses on strengthening the ability of tourism destinations to anticipate, withstand and recover from the impacts of Hurricane Melissa. It provides a structured framework for assessing damage, supporting communities, restoring critical infrastructure, and accelerating the reopening of tourism services. The programme integrates data, rapid assessments, community support, and strategic planning to build long-term resilience across affected destinations, ensuring they return stronger, safer, and more sustainable.
Flagship Global and Caribbean Initiatives
Ed Bartlett Lecture Series
A global webinar series reaching millions, designed to raise awareness, promote dialogue, and examine issues affecting the tourism sector.
Irma and Maria Recovery Initiative
Recovery support to the islands of The Bahamas and the Cayman Islands following major storm impacts.
Sargassum Management Project
A regional initiative focused on minimizing the impact of sargassum on the Caribbean’s tourism product and safeguarding coastal livelihoods.
Tourism Resilience Barometer
A global measurement framework that helps governments, private sector operators, and other stakeholders assess tourism resilience readiness across destinations.
GTRCMC Academic Chair
An academic leadership position housed at the University of the West Indies to advance research, partnerships, and capacity building in tourism resilience and crisis management.
Jamaica-Focused Capacity Building and Preparedness Projects
Community Tourism Digital Marketing Project
A national initiative aimed at training Jamaican youth to provide digital marketing support to micro, small and medium tourism enterprises.
Tourism Cybersecurity Resilience Project
A regional project assessing and strengthening cybersecurity readiness among tourism enterprises.
Global Health, Crisis Response and Knowledge Projects
COVID-19 Social Awareness Campaign
An international campaign designed to raise awareness among tourism workers about COVID-19 safety and protective measures.
Building Vaccine Confidence
A global initiative focused on improving vaccine confidence among workers in the tourism sector.
Caribbean COVID-19 Taskforce
A regional effort to evaluate the tourism-related impacts of COVID-19 and guide recovery strategies.
East Africa Tourism Resilience Initiatives
A comprehensive portfolio of resilience and recovery projects across Kenya and Eastern Africa, covering multiple dimensions of tourism development, measurement and crisis management. These include:
COVID-19 impact assessments and recovery pathway studies
Domestic tourism recovery strategies
Product improvement and diversification frameworks
Digitizing tourism mapping and interpretation
Economic impact studies for the hotel sector
Travel readiness assessments
International policy benchmarking
Tourism product inventories across counties and countries
Culture and heritage tourism circuit development
Crisis mapping using georeferenced data
Fiscal and financial risk analysis
Climate change and tourism resilience assessments
Vulnerability assessments and strategic frameworks for crisis management
These initiatives support evidence-based decision-making, stronger institutional capacity, and long-term resilience planning in the region.
PROJECTS AND PROGRAMMES
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):
• 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.