Abstract:

Tourism is an important economic sector in many countries worldwide and Greece too. A lot of tourism destinations are exposed to, or likely to be exposed to various natural hazards such as earthquakes and tsunamis. So, it is very vital to local authorities, the involved with tourism industry, the schools and the population to ensure the effective policy and proper disaster planning at all levels and to mitigate the impacts of a disaster. Part of the planning is to be trained all the involved parts.

Last decades strong earthquakes have affected the Ionian Islands Region of Greece, which is the most seismic area of the country. Given the impact of these events in terms of lives lost, injuries, damaged infrastructure, psychological consequences and economic loss, it is obvious that the stakeholders should be prepared to handle the emergency situation.

“Telemachus” is an innovative operational project on seismic risk management issues in the Ionian Islands. In the framework of the abovementioned project, Earthquake Planning and Protection Organization (EPPO) implements educational actions for different target groups. The aim of these actions is to ensure that all stakeholders have a common understanding on seismic risk reduction, to empower local communities to improve their preparedness and to reconsider risk through a collaborative approach.

This study presents a holistic overview of the risk assessment and earthquake preparedness actions in this specific Region, and EPPO’s awareness and training actions as well.

In order to build disaster resilience in Ionian Islands, EPPO focused to plan educational activities to reframe how disaster risk can be understood and reduced. In particular, educational material on disaster risk issues have been developed tailored to fit in the needs of this region and the tourism industry. Also, for the development of the material have been taken into account the vulnerabilities faced by tourists and the particularities of them, such as they are transient, may have lack knowledge of local hazards, perceive risks differently, may have communication barriers. Looking ahead, seminars and tabletop exercises will be implemented in 4 Ionian Islands for the information and education of specific target groups that involved with the tourism industry, presenting the necessity of earthquake management and its exploitation for the protection of tourists.

Experience has shown that the effective management of seismic risk is still an important challenge for tourism resorts in the Ionian Islands. The long term issue of the EPPO’s Initiative and the “Telemachus” activities is to bridge the gap between the fields of disaster management and tourism planning, by suggesting the utilization of community and tourist awareness.

Keywords:

Tourism, emergency planning, Ionian Islands Region of Greece, seismic risk, training material, disaster, seminars.