UNAIR NEWS – The 2022 Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction (GPDRR) Forum held a few weeks ago in Bali became a momentum to discuss developments in disaster risk management (PRB). However, why is it important to establish disaster risk management? UNAIR tourism expert Novianto Edi Suharno SST PAR MS said disaster risk mitigation in tourist destinations in Indonesia is highly important.
Every tourist destinations have domestic and international visit rates. Besides, the tourist destinations in Indonesia are known as the Ring of Fire, which means they are rich in natural resources, including mountains, sea, and forests.
“Why disaster risk mitigation? Because natural disasters that occurred in the destinations caused huge losses,” he said.
Depends on natural ecosystem
Natural-based tourism, Anto added, is highly dependent on a completely intact ecosystem. Conducting risk reduction activities aims to minimize the huge loss in terms of casualties and natural damage.
“These two are important benchmarks. Apart from minimizing casualties, it is related to the natural ecosystem as the tourist destination itself,” he said.
Kemenparekraf supports
The Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy (Kemenparekraf) support is highly needed. One of them is the commitment to developing high-quality and sustainable tourism.
Besides, supplying facilities and infrastructure, such as providing safety equipment, becomes one of the disaster mitigation forms.
“So in emergencies, the safety equipment is ready to use. It is Kemenparekraf’s commitment to deal with disaster,” Anto said.
“On the other hand, sustainable tourism development means the ecosystem will be consistently maintained. It is one of disaster mitigation by applying an appropriate and measured treatment based on the standard operating procedures.”
He said, “For a tourism destination, one of the supports is in the form of the availability of safety equipment in emergency response conditions.”
He added, “In addition, the dissemination of programs from central and local government to raise awareness that prevention is better than handling disaster should be conducted consistently.”
Author: Ananda Wildhan Wahyu Pratama
Editor: Feri Fenoria
