In the immediate aftermath of the devastating tsunami of the 26th December, 2004, the World Tourism Organization established an Emergency Task Force and convened an extraordinary session of the Executive Council that met in Phuket, Thailand, on the 31st January and 1st February, 2005. The Emergency Task Force submitted a draft action plan for post-tsunami tourism recovery in Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives which was subsequently adopted as the Phuket Action Plan.

The Phuket Action Plan focused on aiding the human recovery in the tourism industry in 5 key areas – marketing and communications, community relief, professional training, sustainable development, and risk management. A coordinating unit for emergency tourism recovery in the affected countries was set up at the UNWTO headquarters in Madrid in February, 2005, to oversee and execute the various projects. The results of the activities of the unit are available in the publication “Tsunami: one year on: a summary of the implementation of the Phuket Action Plan.” The coordinating unit continued its functions until mid-2006 when it was integrated into the broader risk and crisis management section of UNWTO.

In order to continue the support to the tsunami affected countries, UNWTO and the Federal Government of Germany established in 2006 a UNWTO consulting unit in Bonn, Germany. The UNWTO Consulting Unit on Biodiversity and Tourism for Tsunami Affected Countries provides consultancy and advisory support to national and local governments following the Guidelines on Biodiversity and Tourism Development of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). Biodiversity and tourism development and its natural risk prevention potential of intact ecosystems, will be mutually supportive. Read more about the unit’s projects in Thailand and Indonesia at www.unwto.de