Travel Penticton planning for another high water year

Like other groups preparing emergency plans if 2018 turns out to be another high water year, Travel Penticton is preparing its own plans how to deal with an emergency.

Thom Tischik, the tourism organization’s executive director, said it was frustrating last year when people interpreted the news stories of fires and floods to mean the entire province was ablaze or underwater.

Related: Flood watch a proactive approach

What some people were hearing, he said, was that B.C. was closed, leading to cancelling Penticton vacations, even though the city avoided some of the worst of the problems.

Tischik is planning a conference involving everyone from city staff and council to business and emergency organizations, even the media, to talk about how to approach sending out the message and involve tourism in the process.

“Last year we did the ‘We’re still happening’ campaign and that was reactive rather than proactive,” said Tischik. “We would like to be able to say, if we are going to have this kind of situation coming up this year, how is everybody going to work together for communication?

“We want to know how everybody would factor into that, and if it is a province-wide call of emergency, how do we deal with that, again from a marketing perspective?”

Penticton, Tischik said, enjoyed many clear days during the fires and he wants that kind of message getting out there as well.

Related: Penticton having a “brilliant” summer

Tischik has some specific needs for communication, though. He wants to ensure potential visitors are hearing an accurate depiction of conditions.

It might not be smoked in where we are, but it might be bad in the Caribou. Or it might be vice versa, he said.

“We want to ensure, if we can, that we all have a common message that goes out there and we all understand the one common goal is that everyone is safe and businesses are strong and viable,” said Tischik. “It could be a sunny day here, but people don’t think it is because the province is under a state of emergency.”

Tischik worries that when people heard about last year’s province-wide state of emergency, they were hearing “B.C. is closed.”

“They don’t know that (a state of emergency declaration) kicks in the ability to do various things or get funds. What they think is that a state of emergency means it’s a disaster. And they don’t want to be around a disaster,” he said.

Related: Reminding tourists it’s still happening’ in the Okanagan

Tischik said that if the meeting results in some positive actionable items, that would be great. Even if it doesn’t, he continued, gathering community leaders together to make connections before another season of flooding happens is still a positive outcome.