Some crisis events, such as a severe weather forecast, an algal bloom moving down a river, or an expected insect plague generally provides adequate advance warning, which allows you time to prepare your business and property.
A warning may come from the emergency services or your regional tourism board depending on the type of incident and its lead time. It's therefore important to have systems in place to monitor and receive warnings and information from the emergency services, especially those that are of greatest risk to your business.
Additionally, make sure you are listed with the nearest accredited Visitor Information Centre and your regional and local tourism associations.
If you receive advanced warning of an incident
- Conduct a brief assessment of the threat and the potential impacts it may have to your business and the safety of staff and visitors.
- Manage your bookings accordingly.
- If necessary, activate your emergency management plan.
- Monitor warnings and forecasts.
- Prepare your property based on the imminent threat.
- Evacuate your property if necessary.
Remember that you won’t always get advance notice for a crisis event.
Receiving warnings and activating your plan
Receive warning and activate plan
Below are some examples of when you would likely receive a warning that an incident is expected to occur. In these situations you should activate your emergency management plan immediately:
- bushfires – when there are high temperatures and high winds forecast
- flooding – when there is major flooding forecast in your area
- severe storm – when more than 100ml of rainfall is forecast during a storm.
- oil spill or other hazardous material accidents
Receive warning and possibly activate plan
Below are some examples of when you likely receive a warning that an incident is expected to occur. In these situations you will evaluate the situation and activate your emergency management plan if you need to:
- pest plagues – such as insects
- air pollution such as smoke
- an outbreak of disease
- blue-green algae outbreak
- drought
No warning
It is unlikely you will receive a warning that an incident is expected to occur in events such as:
- water pollution
- earthquake
- animal attack e.g. shark
- food poisoning
- major transport accident
- major crime
- violent demonstration
- terrorist incident
- media exposure of repeated bad service and poor tourist experiences
- high profile criticism such as from a celebrity
- publicity that portrays Australia as unwelcoming or racist.
