Lori Pennington-Gray, Ph.D.
Director and Endowed Chair
SmartState Tourism Center
College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management
University of South Carolina
What is a TCMP?
A Tourism Crisis Management Plan (TCMP) is a series of steps that need to be implemented to address the following questions:
In case of a crisis...
- Have you set up a plan for your guests?
- How about your staff?
- Do you have contingency funds set aside?
- Do you have a mutual aid agreement set up with a partner organization? If not, how do you initiate an agreement?
- Have you thought about what happens if the electricity is out for a day? Three days? A week? Longer? How will this impact your guests and your staff?
- What if a crisis compromises transportation routes? If airlines are grounded, and your guests cannot leave, what would you do?
The Program
The training program has been used extensively worldwide. They include a series of modules, assignments, videos, and best practices that have been woven into four key areas of tourism crisis management - reduction, readiness, response, recovery.
The communications strategy, which is proposed, follows a proven, successful model of implementation for effective business strategies, which have been used in similar national tourism organizations and large private sector tourism organizations.
The TCMP Workshop
What does the SmartState TCMP Workshop provide to destinations and tourism organizations?
- An introduction to the Tourism Crisis Management Model.
- An understanding of the four phases of tourism crisis management: reduction, readiness, response, recovery.
- A toolbox of best practices that can be incorporated into business operations and tourism crisis management plans.
- A checklist of tourism-specific crisis management essentials.
- Knowledge of best practices that will help destinations and tourism organizations realize that crisis planning is essential to their success.
Why SmartState's TCMP Workshop?
SmartState Tourism continually monitors global crises that affect the tourism industry, while also monitoring and identifying best practices in crisis management and communication worldwide. These findings are integrated into the SmartState TCMP Workshops to provide relevant best practices that are specific to the tourism industry. Furthermore, we have partnerships with industry leaders and academics who are experts in tourism crisis management. Thus, we have relationships with practitioners and scholars across the globe who can share their experiences in planning for and managing past crises that have affected the tourism industry. SmartState Tourism offers both specialized regional and international workshops.
Two four-hour seminar classes in each of the following subjects:
- Crisis Management Planning
- Potential Gaps in Misinformation in Crisis Communication
- Tourism Ambassadors
- Tourism Area Response Network
- Crisis Concierge
- Resilience Scorecard
Materials to be provided by SmartState:
- PowerPoint presentations in English and Spanish
- Pre-workshop reading materials in English
- Workbook for completion (provided during the workshop)
- Digital materials for three courses
We recommend the following materials are available to make the workshop successful:
- Computer and projectors
- Tables and chairs
- A whiteboard
- Five flip charts, markers, and paper
- Wireless microphone
- Video camera
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