Sectoral Brief: Enhancing Tourism Destination Resilience: Insights of the MYRIAD-EU Multi-risk Approach. MYRIAD-EU Sectoral Brief

Tourism remains a vital economic sector but faces mounting risks from climate change, natural hazards, pandemics, and cascading disruptions across interdependent systems such as transport, energy, and agriculture. Conventional crisis management—focused on single hazards or generic disruptions—has proven insufficient in addressing the systemic, multi-hazard nature of these risks.

The Horizon 2020 MYRIAD-EU project offers a robust, science-based multi-risk framework that integrates hazard analysis, vulnerability assessment, and adaptive policy pathways. Applied in pilot cases like La Palma (Canary Islands), it demonstrates how destinations can identify both direct risks (e.g., infrastructure damage, business interruption) and indirect risks (e.g., supply-chain failures, reputational losses), while building forward-looking, climate-resilient strategies.

Key insights include the need to:

• Map systemic interdependencies between tourism and other sectors.

• Incorporate dynamic, scenario-based planning rather than static risk assessments. • Strengthen governance and coordination among stakeholders.

• Provide financial protections and incentives for SMEs and local operators.

• Integrate sustainability and resilience without delaying economic recovery.

The MYRIAD-EU approach aligns with EU priorities under the Green Deal and Climate Adaptation Strategy, offering a clear roadmap for destinations to move from reactive crisis management to proactive resilience building.

Recommendations:

• Mandate multi-hazard risk modeling for all major tourism investments to capture direct, indirect, and cascading risks.

• Adopt phased integration of MYRIAD-EU’s six-step framework into tourism policies, budgets, and destination master plans.

• Leverage public–private partnerships with incentives (e.g., tax credits, subsidised insurance) for hazard-resilient infrastructure and sustainable practices.

• Deploy observatories and dashboards to monitor risks and resilience metrics transparently, enhancing stakeholder trust.

• Promote regional and global scaling by replicating successful pilots (e.g., Canary Islands) and sharing best practices internationally.

• Strengthen financial protections for SMEs and workers through dedicated insurance schemes, relief funds, and risk pools.

• Integrate adaptive land-use and sustainability policies to balance short-term recovery with long-term resilience, avoiding maladaptation.