Crisis Communications Handbook for Regional and Local Tourism

The Crisis Communications Handbook for Regional and Local Tourism was developed to assist local and regional bodies to plan for, respond to, and recover from crisis events both man-made and natural.

Developed by Tourism Victoria in consultation with the tourism industry, the handbook offers step-by-step guidance to developing and implementing a crisis communications plan and provides advice to help counter negative publicity in the event of a crisis.

Crisis Essentials Guide

The Crisis Essentials Guide (1.4 mb) aims to provide essential information to tourism businesses about how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a crisis event.

Possible crisis events that could affect your business include natural disasters such as a bushfire or flood, or manmade events such as a pandemic or chemical leakage.

An emergency can have a profound affect on a tourism business whether it directly impacts upon the business or simply occurs within the same region, state or country. Tourism regions are vulnerable to public perceptions of health and safety. An emergency in your area can potentially result in a downturn in visitation to your business.

This guide will help you to get organised so you can recover more quickly from any emergency incident.

It has also been supported by a series of briefings and workshops for tourism businesses located in high bushfire risk areas, made possible through generous funding from the CFA.

Crisis Essentials supports the more comprehensive Open for Business crisis management publication, available in hard copy format and online. 

Hard copies of the guide are also available from Tourism Victoria on 03 9653 9777.

When customers cancel: Guidance for tourism businesses

When customers cancel: guidance for tourism businesses is a free guide that explains your rights and the rights of your customers when it comes to cancelling bookings in the event of a crisis and why a cancellation policy may avoid potential problems.