Tathra, located on the far south coast of New South Wales is recovering from a catastrophic bushfire that occurred on Sunday 18th March. In the immediate aftermath, negative and confronting images of the bushfire in the region was, and in some outlets still is, considered front page news across national media.
While this has had devastating effects to many families and homes in the area, it has left most of the tourism businesses unscathed and this communication threatens to negatively affect one of Tathra’s main industries; tourism, in the short term and potentially for years to come.
The Tathra business community, supported by Bega Valley Shire Council has tasked Sapphire Coast Tourism to help them lead the recovery efforts for a communication and awareness building campaign. This campaign is aligned with the key messaging of the Council disaster response task force and the Mayor’s communication team. All communications and marketing at this time seek to acknowledge the community that have suffered a loss, be empathetic to the personally challenging situation that the community is facing and provide support to help the recovery effort achieve its goals.
The best way that the tourism and business community can show their support for the Tathra community at this time is to encourage people to not cancel their plans to visit Tathra these April School Holidays and beyond through developing and sharing positive messaging online and offline.
For practical ways your business can show support for the region, head to http://www.visittathra.com.au/bushfire-recovery-industry-support/.