{"id":32349,"date":"2026-10-08T19:16:02","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=32349"},"modified":"2026-10-08T19:16:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T23:16:02","slug":"tourism-investments-must-include-disaster-preparedness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/tourism-investments-must-include-disaster-preparedness\/","title":{"rendered":"Tourism investments must include\u00a0disaster preparedness"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8211;&nbsp;<strong>Pres. Ali&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>tells&nbsp;<\/strong><strong>regional stakeholders<\/strong><strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-by Jordan Alkins <\/p>\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1366\" height=\"2048\" src=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903.jpeg 1366w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903-200x300.jpeg 200w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903-683x1024.jpeg 683w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903-768x1151.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/IMG_2903-1025x1536.jpeg 1025w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1366px) 100vw, 1366px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Irfaan Ali is calling for greater regional cooperation on disaster preparedness, technology and food security, as the Caribbean&nbsp;strategizes&nbsp;the future of its tourism industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his address to&nbsp;the State of the Tourism Industry Conference (SOTIC )2026, President Ali said disaster preparedness and business continuity should be built into tourism investments from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He proposed that investment agreements include contingency measures that automatically take effect when disasters strike and called on the Caribbean Tourism Organization to help develop a regional mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn those negotiations, there must be a clause to deal with contingencies and situations that we face, natural disasters. So that we are not negotiating that contingency clause when we are faced with a natural disaster, but a clause kicks in once that event occurs,\u201d he said. <br>He&nbsp;stressed that disaster preparedness cannot be the responsibility of governments alone, saying businesses must also prepare for disruptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Ali also called for stronger regional supply chains, urging Caribbean tourism businesses to source more food and products from within the region.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He also urged greater investment in farmers, including in Belize, while positioning the Caribbean as a leading producer of premium products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<strong>How&nbsp;is it&nbsp;we position the region as a custodian of the world&#8217;s finest coconut water? How do we invest in coconut water to&nbsp;optimize&nbsp;the value? If we don&#8217;t do it, trust me, visitors are going to be travelling around the world to get the finest coconut water and not from our region<\/strong>,\u201d he said. <br>Ali also called for regional strategies on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, saying Caribbean countries are too small to tackle these challenges alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He&nbsp;is therefore&nbsp;urging&nbsp;closer integration with Latin America, including wider Spanish-language training, to strengthen economic and tourism ties.<br><br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211;&nbsp;Pres. Ali&nbsp;tells&nbsp;regional stakeholders -by Jordan Alkins President Irfaan Ali is calling for greater regional cooperation on disaster preparedness, technology and food security, as the Caribbean&nbsp;strategizes&nbsp;the future of its tourism industry.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32323,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1238,366,350],"tags":[488,1305,448,412,405,498],"class_list":["post-32349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-development","category-local-development","category-news","tag-488","tag-caribbean","tag-ncn","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news","tag-tourism"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32349"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32351,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32349\/revisions\/32351"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}