TOTA/BCRTS: Tourism + Wildfire Crisis Communications

Kate Colley
Written By Kate Colley

Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association / British Columia Regional Tourism Secretariat: Province-wide crisis communications strategy for BC’s worst wildfire seasons on record — protecting the region’s $3.6-billion tourism economy while communities navigated evacuations, closures, and constant uncertainty.

The Challenge

Severe wildfire seasons created fast-changing conditions across the Thompson Okanagan. Tourism operators needed a coordinated way to communicate with visitors, media and industry partners while following official emergency guidance.

Without clear information, travellers often treated the entire region as affected. Communities well outside evacuation zones faced cancellations even when they remained open and safe to visit.

What Hatch Did

Hatch developed and led crisis communications for the Thompson Okanagan Tourism Association and the BC Regional Tourism Secretariat. The work included messaging frameworks, media response protocols, operator toolkits, stakeholder communications and media training for local tourism businesses.

During active events, Hatch tracked changing conditions, coordinated information across industry and government partners, and turned official updates into clear public guidance. Communications distinguished affected communities from destinations that remained open, helping visitors make informed decisions and reducing unnecessary cancellations.

The Result

The crisis communications model was used across multiple wildfire seasons and adapted for floods and extreme heat. It gave tourism organizations and local operators a consistent way to communicate during emergencies, with tools that could be updated and deployed quickly as conditions changed.

The work established Hatch as a specialist in tourism crisis communications. Kate brings hands-on experience coordinating public information across tourism operators, destination organizations, industry bodies and government during active emergencies.

Kate Colley

Kate Colley has worked across nearly every format hospitality offers — destinations, resorts, hotels, restaurants, wineries, and major events — and she brings all of it to every engagement. She led the host property communications strategy for Canada’s G7 Leaders’ Summit at Kananaskis and spent a decade as Director of Communications for Four Seasons Vancouver and Whistler. She has also been an operator — co-owning Naramata Inn, tripling revenue during a pandemic, and doing the kinds of risky, exciting things that look obvious in hindsight. She is a strategist, a marketer, an operator, and an advisor — and oftentimes the person who walks into your business, spots the gap between where you are and where you could be, and helps close it.

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