The workshop is part of the ‘Examining the impacts of crises on tourism: Learning from European Destinations’  research project TOPOSOPHY is working on for the ETC, with the aim to develop a Tourism Crisis Management Framework to support European NTOs in crisis preparedness, response, recovery, and resilience building.

The key aim of the workshop was to bring all participants up to speed with the project’s key findings, explain the principles of the Crisis Management Framework, and critically review the actions included in the Framework. We shared key takeaways from our extensive primary and secondary research, showing how crisis management in European tourism has changed over the last decade, and presented a comprehensive framework, specifically tailored for NTOs.

Through practical and engaging exercises, the participants were provided with the opportunity to refine and validate the Framework by directly feeding into it with specific actions based on their first-hand experience.

NTO leaders were divided into groups to discuss how they would respond to  the impacts of crises that are most prevalent in European destinations due to, for example, the changing climate, the ongoing war in Ukraine, or other unexpected events such as terrorist attacks or volcanic eruptions. They were also providing invaluable inputs on how to deal with disinformation in the era of rapid AI developments and social media.

We are grateful for all the insights that will now be incorporated to the Framework, ultimately leading to a more effective management of any future crises by European destinations, and will post further news as soon as the crisis and in-depth report are published.