 |
| Laura Guitar and Lisa Ross co-authored this article. |
As the global tourism industry gears up for the inevitable coronavirus (2019-nCoV) contagion in new markets, it’s worth noting that the outbreak poses industry risk well beyond the reality of the health hazards involved. The greater threat—the one that’s driving elections, impacting industry and, in recent cases, decimating destinations—is our collective psychology of irrational fear.
Consider that, while the coronavirus is serious, it doesn’t appear to be nearly as deadly as MERS (with a 34 percent mortality rate) or SARS (with a 10 percent mortality rate). In fact, some scientists are warning that the greater concern this time of year should be the flu, which has killed 8,200 people and hospitalized 140,000 during this flu season alone, according to the CDC.
But why let facts and common sense stop a good social media-driven panic at this point?
In today’s information cycle, it’s never been truer that perception outplays reality. And no one, sadly, is going to compel the masses by sharing scientific data points when alarm draws more attention.
For this reason, travel companies would be wise to align communications to traveler perceptions of the outbreak beyond just the facts of the situation. It’s one thing to tell travelers in most of the Western world that they have little to worry about. It’s another to do so when speaking to a population awash in ongoing cycles of click-bait headlines and misinformation.
Media outlets regularly refer to the disease as a “never-before-seen strain” and a “mysterious new coronavirus,” which are true but lack the context that the common cold is also a coronavirus. Venerable outlets like the New York Times run alarmist headlines such as ‘What if We All Get Sick?’
Social media channels are scrambling to stop the spread of misinformation about the virus on their platforms, amounting to little more than a game of Whac-A-Mole. And the fact that the virus originated in China just compounds the issue. Unfounded rumors that the Chinese government started the virus, unverifiable user photos breaking through its Internet firewall and intentional fake news of a new hospital being built to treat the illness remain front-and-center online.
Which leaves the tourism industry with a question: how to communicate in an era of irrational fear? For example, if we really are more afraid of shark attacks than driving a car—and studies show we are—is it effective to explain how comparatively dangerous driving is? Or should we focus on everything being done to prevent shark attacks? In this case, does it work to put the coronavirus in its appropriate context at this point in time? Or should we treat is as the public believes it to be: a disease that’s likely to impact me personally at any moment?
Speaking for myself, I’m unwilling to walk away from the facts: cars are more dangerous than sharks and people should focus on not catching the flu before losing sleep today over the new coronavirus. Yet, if our job is to deliver messages in a way they are heard by all our stakeholders, that approach alone doesn’t work.
Increasingly, issue management in the tourism industry means communicating beyond the facts to address paranoia at the level it manifests. This means speaking to all the quality systems, protocols and procedures we will employ to address an illness, in a way that is outsized to the risk factors at hand. It means that sharing our capacity to respond to a possibility that doesn’t exist and may never manifest. It means meeting our stakeholders where they are, even if it’s in a whirlwind of irrational fear.
***
Laura Guitar is Executive Vice President and Partner at rbb Communications. Lisa Ross is President of rbb Communications.
It's almost always possible to recover from past mistakes, but the way the Met handled the John Galliano fiasco is an object lesson in how not to do that.
How to reach audiences who have stopped trusting the biggest names in media.
It's not just the tech sector—when companies in any sector grow rapidly, what happens to their ability to manage, learn from and prevent critical issues from evolving into full-blown crises?
FGS Global’s Paul Holmes, Molly Levinson of TLG Communications. Trident GMG’s Joshua Galper and Brunswick Group’s Ellen Moskowitz all placed in the top level (Tier 1) of individual practitioners in the recently released Chambers rankings for both crisis & PR communications pros and those working in litigation PR & communications.
Gregg Feistman, M.A., Professor of Practice in Public Relations at Temple University and former corporate communications executive, joins Taking the Lead to discuss the frameworks leaders can use to determine when to speak up or stay silent.
