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INDONESIA’S Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy discussed crisis communication strategies for the tourism industry during the pandemic at the ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Solutions Expo 2020 (ASTSE) forum.
The ASEAN Sustainable Tourism Solutions Expo 2020 is a regional platform that promotes sustainable tourism solutions, resource efficiency technologies, discussions on crisis resilience and best practices for ASEAN countries. This year, ASTSE was hosted virtually by the Lao government.
According to the Head of the Communication Bureau of Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy, Agustini Rahayu, said that in handling crisis communication, the Ministry of Tourism was maximizing various digital platforms to disseminate information on handling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the tourism sector and the creative economy.
“In addition, Tourism Ministry is also working with relevant stakeholders, such as government and private agencies, as well as the tourism and creative economy communities in order to reach a wider audience in disseminating information about government programs and policies,” she said.
Agustini Rahayu added that this was done so that the public would receive accurate and actual information more quickly. Because the most important thing in dealing with a crisis is maintaining good communication and fostering solidarity between affected players.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, Tourism Ministry found new strength in crisis communication, namely the resilience message of tourism & creative economy players for the pandemic that hit and their optimism that with tolerance and mutual cooperation, the tourism & creative economy sector would be able to get through this crisis and be ready to rise. stronger. This message needs to be echoed by all ASEAN member countries to further foster the trust of tourists, both domestic and foreign, regarding the strength of the tourism sector and ASEAN’s creative economy,” she noted.
Meanwhile, General Director of Clickable Impact Consulting Group, Jason Lusk, said there were four ways to handle crisis communication. First, always be listening. In this case, we must know how to build an alarm system, one of which is by monitoring the number of mentions on social media related to our company or agency.
Second, planning to deal with a crisis, such as developing a crisis management protocol, even though the crisis in question has not yet occurred. Third, implement the crisis management protocol that was created when the crisis came. Finally, evaluate the planning and implementation that has been done.
“The crisis did occur suddenly, therefore it is very important for every industry, especially tourism, to have a careful crisis planning, so that when the crisis comes, tourism industry players are ready to face it,” Jason concluded. [traveltext.id]
