Disaster risk management for coastal tourism destinations responding to climate change: a practical guide for decision makers

This handbook provides disaster managers, local and municipal and community planners, as well as other stakeholders in the tourism sector with a practical guidance on how to better prepare for disasters in coastal destinations. It has the following objectives: (i) increase the operational capacity of local communities in coastal tourism destinations to respond in emergencies caused by natural disasters; (ii) support the adaptation efforts of these communities to climate change; and (iii) reduce the impacts of natural disasters to local communities in coastal tourism destinations. Section three includes National and Local Level Frameworks of the Bahamas Islands, Caribbean, and Phuket Island Province, the Kingdom of Thailand.

It states that the sustainability of coastal tourism destinations depends partly on their ability to adapt planning and management practices to the impacts of climate change and also to increase their ability to effectively manage natural disasters; and that it is the degree to which people are prepared for disasters that determines how vulnerable or resilient their community will be. The handbook aims to enable coastal destinations to mainstream sustainability into their tourism planning and management process and to prepare them to better respond to natural disasters, thus creating better tourism destinations for all.