Communication strategy for the tourism industry

Communicating the science of climate change and adaptation is a considerable challenge due to the complexity of the science to be conveyed, the plurality of messages to be disseminated, and the diversity of audiences to be reached and their different degrees of awareness.

Quebec’s tourism industry is based on 32,103 businesses, mainly small or very small businesses and NPOs, in the restaurant (48.9%), leisure (21.9%), accommodation (17.5%), transportation (7.5%) and travel services (4.2%) sectors (MTO, 2014). The products and activities that support the tourism economy of the regions, as well as the associations that oversee them, will be affected to different degrees by climate change in the coming decades. Climate phenomena are already affecting tourism competitiveness and financial risk.

Through this initiative, the Ministère du Tourisme du Québec wishes to strengthen the positioning of the tourism industry in terms of adaptation by equipping it to better prepare for the coming challenges and to seize business opportunities.

To develop a tailor-made communication strategy to support the tourism sector of the economy. This sector-specific approach will favour the promotion, transfer and assimilation of the knowledge acquired throughout the 2014-2019 research cycle.

Component 1. Develop a communication plan that will facilitate the transfer and assimilation of knowledge 

• Carry out a benchmarking study on effective existing communication and risk management tools

• Perform a diagnosis of needs and expectations by target audience

• Propose innovative, targeted, relevant means of communication

• Establish indicators of awareness and impact (e.g. target audience’s level of perception and awareness)

Component 2. Consolidate and prioritize existing knowledge to produce decision support tools, use them in the appropriate communication channels, and carry out communication activities that will contribute to increasing the resilience of the tourism industry

• Gather and select knowledge on climate change drawn from Ouranos programming that is useful to the tourism industry

• Prioritize, consolidate and popularize existing knowledge on climate change that is relevant to the tourism industry 

• Modify or produce one or more risk management tools (e.g. risk self-assessment) in an easy-to-use format based on the information collected

• Disseminate knowledge through one or more decision-making tools (e.g. information portal, living lab, etc.) to be determined according to the needs of the target audiences, and through other complementary communication tools and activities (e.g. newsletters, public speaking, seminars)

• Measure the impact of communication tools and activities (e.g. satisfaction and penetration rates)