Enterprise Resilience of Maritime Container Ports to Pandemic and Other Emergent Conditions; Ecotourism in Malaysia: Perspectives of Tourists and Residents

As the world becomes increasingly globalized, taking action to combat climate change has become a universal responsibility. The pressing worldwide need for environmental sustainability has garnered the attention of government-owned enterprises such as The Port of Virginia as well as the tourism industry. The Port of Virginia is increasing its environmental resiliency efforts as climate change has detrimental effects on the supply chain; while tourists are searching for the most environmentally friendly travel experience. Both, in their own way, are fighting to save our planet.

The Port of Virginia (PoV) is currently investing $700 million to expand its container capacity by the end of 2020. This investment supports initiatives outlined in the 2065 master plan through the investigation of different scenarios that impact emergent and future port conditions. The analysis described herein includes eleven strategic goals, 100+ strategic plan investments, and several dozen emergent and future conditions. This paper describes the most and least disruptive scenarios of emergent and future conditions. The most disruptive scenarios are selected for contingency planning, enterprise risk management, and corporate research & development. The results of this paper are thus both a methodology for any port to address its emergent and future conditions via its strategic plans and also a case study of the resilience of a major container port on the east coast of the United States.

Ecotourism has become increasingly popular in Malaysia as the federal and state governments have pumped millions of Ringgits into advertisement and tourism campaigns. The Malaysian government has formulated an ecotourism plan to help local communities develop the necessary infrastructure to conserve their environment and cultural heritage. The data used for analysis was from both primary and secondary sources. The paper concludes that environmental and cultural conservation and protection are overshadowed by economic opportunity. Without regulation and policy to protect and maintain the local ecology, the Malaysian tourism industry will come to a screeching halt.

School of Engineering and Applied Science
Bachelor of Science in Systems Engineering
Technical Advisor: James Lambert
STS Advisor: Kent Wayland, Peter Norton
Technical Team Members: Robert Donnan, Arjun Iyer, Tan Karamete, Peter Myers, Simone Olson, Robert Prater