Emergency Resources for BC’s Tourism Industry

Emergencies can impact travel, visitors, and businesses at any time, and potentially influence those who may be planning a trip to or within our province.

During these emergencies, the tourism industry is an important conduit to official information sources for visitors. Our priority is ensuring that travelers have all the official resources they need to make informed decisions based on the latest, on-the-ground information, and to encourage them to continue to consult these resources for any updates before and during their trips.

Our Know Before You Go page on SuperNaturalBC.com is regularly updated and serves as a one-stop shop for visitors looking to access key information resources such as DriveBC, the BC River Forecast Centre, Emergency Info BC, and more.

The following content outlines official emergency information resources for British Columbia, as well as suggested messaging and actions for BC’s tourism industry during emergencies such as such as floods, snowstorms, and wildfires.

During times of stress and uncertainty, it is important to share information from official sources only. There are a variety of resources available to help you prepare for emergencies, gather up-to-date information and help visitors plan their travel.

What Destination BC Will Do

• Our consumer marketing efforts will continue to promote the entire province, adapting to the needs of each region/community, by placing focus on areas that are not currently impacted by emergencies, and supporting impacted areas once the emergency is over.
• We will continue to leverage Know Before You Go as a central message in visitor-facing content, while ensuring visitors know where to find official information resources, and will amplify the real-time content and updates from our tourism partners around the province.
• We will continue to play a key role in the Tourism Emergency Management Committee, and liaise with other agencies as needed to ensure tourism is part of response and recovery efforts.

What Industry Partners Can Do

• Use the hashtags #exploreBC and #RealTime________ (name of city/community) on social media to ensure current and future visitors have an accurate ‘real time’ visual on current conditions. Add the date and time the photo was taken. Tag key tourism partners in our post Tag key partners and/or businesses in your post.
• When appropriate—particularly for emergencies or issues that occur over a long period of time—consider adding boilerplate language that addresses the situation, to your captions.
• As seasonal weather patterns shift, proactively share responsible travel graphics to encourage responsible visitation and emergency prevention and preparedness.
• Destination BC has created safe travel infographics, for you to share on your social channels, downloadable here: Google Drive
• Media are both an important partner and a communications tool in a crisis. They represent the interests of the public and will be looking for specific details of the crisis, different perspectives, and human impact stories—including those about the tourism industry. The news cycle is real-time in a digital and social savvy world. Our response needs to be real-time as well.
  • When appropriate, reach out to your local or provincial media contacts and let them know your community is open for business, while sharing the “Know Before You Go” message and outlining resources for visitors.
  • If you see errors in reporting, work with the outlet/reporter to correct the misinformation in a timely and calm manner.
• If businesses are reporting cancellations, encourage them to be proactive with reservations. Businesses should call those who are booked to give them the latest on-the-ground information, and encourage them to continue to check the latest conditions before their trip, while connecting them with the resources to do so.

What Tourism Business Owners Can Do

• Share these resources with your staff and follow key social media accounts for the latest news.
• Help your guests:
  • If your business is in an impacted area, provide your current customers and future reservations with regular updates, by directing them to official information sources.
  • If your business is not impacted directly, help your current guests plan the rest of their trip to areas that are safe and open for business (your local Visitor Centre has a wealth of information on places to stay and things to do).
  • If your business is not impacted directly, be proactive with future reservations—let your customers know it’s business as usual and you are looking forward to hosting them. British Columbia is a very large province and sometimes our guests can get confused by geographically misleading information.
• Use the hashtags #exploreBC and #RealTime___________ (name of city/community) on social media to ensure current and future visitors have an accurate ‘real time’ visual on current conditions. Add the date and time the photo was taken. Tag key partners and/or businesses in your post.
• Have a plan—use the BC Government’s Resources to prepare for emergencies and to identify potential hazards.