With the aim of disseminating information on tourism crisis management and promoting the practice in various regions, the UNWTO (United Nations World Tourism Organization) Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific, recently collected, analyzed, and organized good practices for domestic and international crisis response in each of the phases: 1) Risk reduction, 2) Readiness, 3) Response, and 4) Recovery, which are the 4Rs that constitute the basic elements of tourism crisis management. In addition, a suite of materials was created including Guidelines for the Promotion of Tourism Crisis Management in Local Governments and Tourism-related Operators.

It is anticipated that by using the guidelines and other materials as references, tourism crisis management plans can be created in preparation for tourism crises, thereby improving the resilience of regional tourism when confronted with crisis situations.

*Tourism Crisis Management: Increasing the resilience of tourism destinations through their systematic preparation involving planning and training carried out in advance in the form of disaster risk reduction measures and countermeasures in the event of a crisis that aim to minimize damage, based on the assumption of a crisis that will have a serious impact on tourists and the tourism industry.

〇 The Guidelines bring together the fundamentals of tourism crisis management and measures that should be carried out by local governments and tourism-related operators in each of the phases of tourism crisis management. They can be used as a reference when introducing tourism crisis management and creating tourism crisis management plans and crisis response manuals.

〇 The Textbook provides a framework that can be used when creating tourism crisis management plans and crisis response manuals based on the Guidelines. It functions as a workbook to facilitate the drafting of tourism management plans and crisis response manuals by answering tourism crisis management issues in the textbook.

〇 The Teaching Materials have been developed for persons in charge of places such as local governments who are not experts in tourism crisis management. It is proposed, they use these materials when acting as instructors on tourism crisis management to concerned parties. Based on the Textbook, the Teaching Materials contain detailed explanations and hints that can be useful when providing guidance and advice to concerned parties.

On February 25th, 2021, the Japan Tourism Agency and the UNWTO Regional Support Office for Asia and the Pacific conducted a webinar on how to use the guidelines and other materials that have been developed.
We are pleased to inform you that video footage from the webinar is now available on the Japan Tourism Agency YouTube channel.

(1)・Opening remarks by the organizer
・Keynote Speech1: “Crisis Communications: Communicating amid uncertainty”
Dr. Dirk Glaesser, Director, Sustainable Development of Tourism Department, United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO)
URL: https://youtu.be/F1ppE39DHHs

(2)・Keynote Speech2：COVID-19 Crisis Response in the Tourism Sector - an ASEAN Perspective
Ms. Aditya Amaranggana, Senior Officer for Tourism Marketing, ICT & Tourism Division, ASEAN Secretariat
URL: https://youtu.be/ItM7IZyROz0

(3)・Introduction on the Usage of Tourism Crisis Management “Guidelines, Teaching Materials, and Instructor‘s Guidebook”
Mr. Masato Takamatsu, President, Tourism Resilience Research Institute
・Closing remarks
URL: https://youtu.be/NbyEWhNGi0Q