Global Tourism Resilience & Crisis Management Centre (GTRCMC) referred to as the Taleb Rifai Centre has been launched in Jordan. It will operate under the leadership of professor Salam Almahadin, president of the university. Bartlett arrived earlier, accompanied by Kenya minister of tourism, Najib Balala.

They were greeted in Amman by Jordan minister of tourism, Nayef Himiedi Al-Fayez. Minister Al-Fayez of Jordan, said: “We welcome the inception of the Taleb Rifai Centre here at the Middle East University. We trust that this initiative will play a key role in delivering resilience, robustness and agility to the tourism industry which is one of the most important sectors in the Jordanian economy through its 13 per cent contribution to GDP.”

The Jordan facility is the sixth such satellite centre to launch, followings the GTRCMC debut in Jamaica. Earlier this month, the GTRCMC successfully launched the Global Tourism Resilience Day during an event at Expo 2020 in Dubai.

The move was part of a multi-tier, international campaign to build resilience in the global travel industry through expansion of the Global Tourism Resilience & Disaster Management Centres. A book on tourism resilience was also released, outlining best practice. The GTRCMC model works in partnership with an outstanding institution of higher learning, namely a well-situated university with departments covering management, research, innovation, civics, policy creation and international development.