NELSON, B.C. – The tourism industry in the Kootenays is getting money from the government to get better at sharing information during emergencies such as wildfires.
Grants from a 200 000 dollar budget will be rolling out to marketing organizations in BC to develop real time information systems to better assist visitors.
Tom Thomson from the Nelson Chamber of Commerce says systems like these would have come in handy a couple of years ago during the intense media reporting.
“There were some significant fire events that were happening in the province that made it seem like BC was on fire. So if you don’t have the proper communication tool, sometimes you are getting the wrong message out to the public. And quite often a great number of the province is usable and with no problems at all,” he says.
Kootenay Rockies Tourism Association will be getting 25 thousand dollars of the total budget.