Sandiaga Uno emphasised his support for establishing the SKB Multisector Communication Forum. “This forum can generate strategic solutions in tourism policy, maintaining tourists’ security, comfort, and safety to improve the image of Indonesia’s tourism,” he said.
The Bali Provincial BPBD carried out several processes to establish this forum, with intensive support from the SIAP SIAGA Program, starting from reviewing and evaluating the implementation of SKB in previous years, and organising a series of meetings involving relevant government institutions, practitioners, associations, academics, and tourism entrepreneurs. The processes were also conducted to prepare a strategy document for accelerating SKB and analyse Bali’s potential in disaster management while maintaining sustainability and community welfare through the impact resulting from the SKB.
The Bali Provincial Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) inaugurated the establishment of the Multistakeholder Communication Forum on Disaster Preparedness Certification (SKB) on Thursday (20/6) at Sanur Resort Watujimbar, Denpasar – Bali. In addition to accelerating the SKB program, this forum functions as a communication centre that provides important information and resources for the tourism sector related to disaster preparedness.
The Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy, Sandiaga Uno, attended the event online. Meanwhile, many other officials attended in person, namely the Deputy for Systems and Strategy of the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB), Raditya Jati, Chief Executive of the Regional Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) of Bali Province, I Made Rentin, and Regional Secretary (Sekda) of Bali Province, I Dewa Made Indra.
Sandiaga Uno emphasised his support for establishing the SKB Multisector Communication Forum. “This forum can generate strategic solutions in tourism policy, maintaining tourists’ security, comfort, and safety to improve the image of Indonesia’s tourism,” he said.
Dewa Made Indra conveyed that the SKB Multisector Communication Forum will serve as a platform to share information, resources, and roles in accelerating the capacity building of the tourism sector in disaster preparedness and risk reduction. This forum convenes key stakeholders from all disaster management and tourism sectors in Bali, including district/city BPBD in Bali, consulate general offices, Bali Tourism Office, Bali Hotel Association, key provincial government institutions, academics, tourism businesses, and media. “The variety of potential disaster risks and the complexity of issues in Bali Province make disaster management a shared responsibility,” he said.
Raditya Jati underlined the importance of this collaboration. According to him, it is necessary to have commitment and synergy in the joint action plan to achieve disaster-safe tourism and sustainable disaster-resilient destinations.
Pioneer of Safe Tourism
The Bali Provincial BPBD carried out several processes to establish this forum, with intensive support from the SIAP SIAGA Program, starting from reviewing and evaluating the implementation of SKB in previous years, and organising a series of meetings involving relevant government institutions, practitioners, associations, academics, and tourism entrepreneurs. The processes were also conducted to prepare a strategy document for accelerating SKB and analyse Bali’s potential in disaster management while maintaining sustainability and community welfare through the impact resulting from the SKB.
According to I Made Rentin, this SKB initiative has been going on since 2013 as one of the strategies for supporting the disaster-resilient business world in Bali. The priority of the SKB is the tourism business sector, especially hospitality, as the backbone of Bali’s economy, without excluding the business world outside the tourism sector. The initiative also makes Bali a pioneer of safe tourism. It cannot be overstated that in several disaster incidents, the tourism sector is one of the hardest to get hit, and this has had a direct impact on residents’ livelihoods and the regional income, for example, during the 2017 eruption of Mount Agung and the COVID-19 pandemic. “However, in the early days of the initiative, there was no strong regulatory basis for SKB implementation,” he said
SKB implementation would be further improved starting in 2020, he continued. The ratification of Local Regulation Number 5 of 2020 concerning Standards for the Implementation of Bali Cultural Tourism, followed by Bali Governor Regulation (Pergub) Number 52 of 2021 as its implementing regulation, has cemented the foundation of SKB implementation even stronger.
However, until 2023, only 99 out of around 500 hotels have been certified. The majority are star-rated hotels in the Nusa Dua area. “This number shows that there are still many tourism businesses that the Disaster Preparedness Certification Team must reach,” said Rentin.
Strategic Role
The SKB team applied five strategic steps other than accelerating the number of certification recipients, which aimed to improve the quality and implementation of SKB for the business world. These steps were strengthening regulations, increasing resource capacity, providing funding, establishing partnerships, and optimising digital technology, as enshrined in the SKB Acceleration Strategy Document. “In this partnership aspect, the SKB Multisector Communication Forum has a critical role,” he said.
When talking about substance, this year, the new certification guideline’s indicators changed from 51 to 31. The new certification guideline’s indicators also accommodate the principles of Gender Equality, Disability, and Social Inclusion (GEDSI) and Climate Change Adaptation (API), which complement the existing components of disaster knowledge, mitigation, preparedness and response capacity, and security.
The change in indicators is also supplemented by a more complete team composition, namely the verifier team, assessment team, and secretariat. These changes are expected to make more tourism business actors obtain certification. The SKB Multisector Communication Forum is at the forefront, not only to expand the scope of SKB in Bali, but also to promote the availability of more verifiers and assessors, expand independent access to funding provision, and be able to bring SKB to the national and international levels.
The SIAP SIAGA Program is the Australia-Indonesia Partnership on Disaster Risk Management which aims to strengthen disaster resilience in Indonesia and the Indo-Pacific Region
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