PAST THINK TANK: THINK TANK V

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BEST Education Network Think Tank V: “Managing Risk and Crisis for Sustainable Tourism: Research and Innovation" in Kingston, Jamaica on June 16-19, 2005 in conjunction with the University of West Indies, Institute for Hospitality and Tourism in the School for Graduate Studies and Research, Jamaica.

The format of this Think Tank differed from previous ones in that it included a session to discuss a research agenda for sustainable tourism, in addition to focusing on curriculum design for sustainable tourism and hospitality. In the curriculum design breakout sessions a teaching module on risk and disaster management for sustainable tourism was developed.

The Think Tank took place over three days and included a combination of plenary speakers and breakout sessions devoted to research issues and curriculum module development in risk and crisis management. The research theme involved workshops that sought to develop a suite of tools to identify, reduce and manage risk to underpin sustainable tourism development. Risk was considered at both the macro level (destinations) and the micro level (enterprises), and potentially at the visitor level. Plenary lectures were given by invited international experts, and full papers were invited for oral presentation by registered delegates.

The mornings were dedicated to paper presentations (See Presentation and Papers). During the three days, participants were divided into groups and each group was led by a facilitator. Each day, the groups were involved in several sessions of discussions on given topics (see Agenda) using the NGT format. The last day, all groups met in an assembly format and reported their results. A summary and resolutions were drafted.