Jasper Wildfire Complex
Following this message, Tourism Jasper transitioned to an amplification role, resharing verified updates from Parks Canada and the Municipality of Jasper to maintain factual accuracy and public trust. Once the State of Local Emergency was lifted, messaging switched back to “Jasper is Open & Ready” - celebrating resilience and inviting responsible visitation to support economic recovery. 2. Interagency Coordination and the “Team Alberta” Approach Recognizing the scale and complexity of the wildfire’s impact, Tourism Jasper quickly reached out to colleagues and partners across Alberta’s tourism ecosystem for alignment, advice, and capacity support. This collaborative framework - the “Team Alberta” approach - proved essential in ensuring a coordinated, province-wide response.
Each organization played a distinct and complementary role. While Tourism Jasper’s small team was consumed with real-time incident management - fielding media inquiries, assisting displaced operators, and supporting community recovery - Travel Alberta’s communications and creative teams provided critical capacity to prepare reopening materials and manage inquiries from national and international markets. At the same time, peer DMOs helped validate Jasper’s messaging, ensuring tone and timing were appropriate while maintaining alignment with the broader provincial tourism narrative. This collaboration quickly extended beyond Jasper’s borders. As an international destination within the Canadian Rockies, Jasper’s nine-week closure had immediate ripple effects across the visitor economy. Tour operators rerouted itineraries, travellers adjusted plans, and nearby destinations such as Banff and Lake Louise experienced both logistical pressures and resonance from the loss of access to Jasper. Through continuous coordination under the “Team Alberta” banner, partners worked together to manage traveller expectations, share factual updates, and preserve confidence in Alberta’s tourism brand as a whole. Key takeaway: Reach out early, ask for help, and accept help when it’s offered. Crisis response is not an individual effort - it’s a networked one. The collective strength of Alberta’s tourism partners ensured that Jasper’s recovery was not only local, but part of a broader provincial and national comeback story.
Key partners included:
• Travel Alberta, which provided strategic communications guidance, creative capacity, and coordinated reopening messaging across provincial and national markets. • The Travel Industry Association of Alberta (TIAA), which supported advocacy and facilitated policy coordination among industry and government stakeholders. • Partner DMOs around Alberta, many of whom served as trusted sounding boards, offering perspective, reassurance, and lessons learned from managing past crises such as wildfires and floods.
Destinations International CRISIS COMMUNICATIONS HANDBOOK
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