Destination Disaster Recovery - summary of best practices
Photo: WNC Times The recent hurricane disaster in Western NC led me to examine academic and technical scholarship about measures that allow tourism destinations to recover. I shared some of these insights in this 10min video: From this work, I identified three activities that DMOs should address in a very timely and active manner. DMOs should actively communicate with the popular media, promoting factual and positive content about the recovery process. Media platforms have the tendency to sensationalize accounts of misery and destruction to draw the attention of their public; so DMOs need to counteract this negative information, or even misinformation, through proactive PR efforts. This effort will likely require the gathering of accounts and digital content (i.e., photos and video) from local residents, businesses and rescue authorities. For example, during recent fieldwork in WNC destinations with whom I am collaborating I capture this quote from a local fire ...