A devastating mud landslide and the collapse of Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge in May 2017 forced the closure of California’s most popular tourist route, Highway 1, for more than 13 months. Tourism to Big Sur and San Luis Obispo was severely affected. Black Diamond was tasked with creating a real-time and short-term recovery PR campaign.
Black Diamond created a detailed crisis matrix to assess negative coverage and continually monitored the impact upon tourism and consumer sentiment. This helped inform the recovery strategy. The trade and PR teams developed UK tourism action plans and disseminated regular news and content updates to key partners and media.
Once the road reopened we needed to make travellers aware that their favourite road-trip could once again be experienced. Media visits were hosted in partnership with Hertz and key airline partners, and new itineraries were created in conjunction with tour operators. Road trip videos guides, created through influencer partnerships, were promoted across Visit California owned channels as part of a paid social campaign.
Industry partnership with Hertz car hire
10+ media visits
Influencer partnership and social media campaign with reach of 23 million
Media partnership with Telegraph Media and tour operators to showcase new product and itineraries
Seven DMO partners included in recovery efforts
