){kind=spacer}
)
Expert:Innen workshops successfully held in the pilot destinations
Tatjana PetersOver the past few weeks, Futouris has entered the next phase of the "Destination Resilience" project together with its project partner, the German Committee for Disaster Reduction (DKKV). In all three project destinations in Sri Lanka, Namibia and the Dominican Republic, our local project partners held two expert workshops with numerous stakeholders from the tourism industry in the regions.
Workshop series on destination resilience
The local team in Sri Lanka kicked off the first series of workshops in the destinations on May 4, 2022. In Ella, our partners from Uva Welassa University / Sustainable Tourism Services Pvt. Ltd met with 31 Sri Lankan experts from academia, government organizations and the private sector. Together, they dealt with the topics of risk analysis and risk mitigation, analysed the prioritization of measures and collected options for action to mitigate local risks.
Our project partners from the University of Namibia (UNAM) also met with a total of 51 experts from tourism-related institutions in the Namibian capital Windhoek to discuss risks, risk drivers and how to overcome them. As part of a "Gallery Walk", the participants were able to actively exchange ideas with each other and get a picture of the local and global view of tourism. After a presentation on tourism in Namibia and the associated challenges in terms of crises and disasters, the participants discussed risks and how to overcome them in various groups, followed by a plenary discussion.
A workshop on the above-mentioned topics was also held in the Dominican Republic in May. All the results of the workshops will be incorporated into the destination-specific Risk and Resilience Manuals, which will also be available on the Futouris website in future.
Second series of workshops for local stakeholders
The second series of workshops was then launched in the destinations at the beginning of June. In Ella, 32 local stakeholders met, including restaurant owners, owners of small hotels and tour guides. Together, the results of the first workshop were presented, further activities were collected and previous and future training needs were analyzed. The project activities were also continued in Namibia as part of a second workshop. On June 14, 2022, the participants came together at the Swakopmund Hotel and Entertainment Center. Creative workshop methods such as a gallery walk and risk chain modeling were used to identify risk drivers and corresponding options for action. In addition, obstacles and funding opportunities for appropriate measures to increase resilience in the destination were discussed in group work.
In the Dominican Republic, the participants of the second workshop came together on June 9, 2022 to discuss similar issues in the context of tourism activity in Samaná. The workshop was characterized by a high willingness to participate and committed cooperation of the local actors. Factors that promote and hinder the implementation of measures to increase resilience were identified and translated into a long-term strategy for the destination.
LunchTalk on destination resilience
The project team also organized a LunchTalk on destination resilience on 1 June 2022. Eva Posch from DKKV, Matthias Beyer from mascontour, Philipp Corradini from EURAC Research and Bijan Khazai from Risklayer and Hotel Resilient discussed the topic of "Resilience in tourism". The key questions were:
What does resilience mean for a tourist destination?
What are the challenges in measuring and evaluating resilience?
What is the relationship between resilience and sustainability in tourism?
