Tourism Risk Management - Sustainable Tourism Online

• Be honest and transparent
To protect your credibility, adopt a policy of full disclosure about what is known and what is not
known. Deliver facts in a non-patronizing manner. Don't try to cover up mistakes, mislead or withhold
critical information. The media will uncover the facts and then make you look dishonest or inept.
Relate to your audience - you are not talking to experts, so communicate your message in terms and
language that people can understand.
• Do not impose a news blackout
Failure to provide information to the media will not only deprive you of the chance to express your
point of view, it will also force the media to seek alternative news sources that may provide
inaccurate information which will be detrimental to the destination.
• Establish a media centre
The media will seek out an authoritative organization for comments and assistance immediately, so
set aside an area they can use that is equipped with desks, phones and data lines. Use it for media
briefings. If the crisis occurs in a remote location, set up a second media centre there with a second
spokesperson who is in constant communication with the headquarters. Work with security or
emergency services to help photographers and camera crews gain photo opportunities.
• Act fast
News travels around the world in a matter of seconds. In order to work effectively with the media, you
need to respond as quickly as they do. Begin to release information once you are ready to answer
the five key questions: who, what, where, when, and why? When accurate, up-to-date information is
not available, say so and promise to get back to the journalists as soon as possible. Set up a
timetable for regular media briefings. Provide background information on your destination.
• Remember the victims
The first communication about the crisis should include information about what is being done to help
the victims. News about economic losses to the tourism industry comes across as insensitive where
loss of life or injury is concerned. Tourism is a humane industry and needs to show its
compassionate face in a crisis. As an example: when two French sunbathers were run over during a
police chase recently on Miami Beach, the tourism director immediately arranged to fly in the grieving
parents, he met them personally at the airport and spent the evening with the family in hospital. His
personal involvement, rather than police negligence, was the focus of the story that ran in the
morning newspaper.
• Avoid speculation and categorical reassurances
Speculation about what caused a crisis or who is to blame is not the responsibility of the tourism
operators or industry. Not only would doing so create problems in your relationship with the disaster
management agencies, the media thrives on conflict and will use different messages from different
agencies to suggest conflict or a lack of cooperation, thus creating doubt about the efficiency of
response and recovery operations. It is vital that you don't release any information or provide
comment on any matter concerned with the crisis which is not strictly a tourism responsibility.
• Put the crisis into context
Use maps and statistics to demonstrate that the crisis is limited to a specific area or that it has only
affected a portion of your country’s tourism industry. When highly publicized health problems among
British visitors to the Dominican Republic created a crisis in 1997, part of the recovery strategy was
to demonstrate through statistics that less than one percent of the two million British visitors in the
previous year had fallen ill. This fact emphasized that hundreds of thousands of people had travelled
safely to the Dominican Republic.
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