New Year Gets Off to a Bad Start.

January 2005

The travel business, the media and rescue missions from all over the world are still reeling from the magnitude of the disaster and destruction wrought by the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day. Our thoughts go out to the relatives of the nearly 200,000 people who perished, the thousands of survivors, may of them badly injured and traumatised, and the hundreds of thousands of coastal dwellers who have lost their homes, their livelihood and in many cases everything they owned.

Be Prepared
Experts are working on a scheme to put in place an early-warning system in the event of any more serious underwater earthquakes, and so hopefully prevent a repeat of such horrendous loss of life, but once again it shows that natural disasters can strike anywhere, at any time, and can affect us all. We must do our best to be prepared.

Last November, as reported in the last newsletter, ABTA (Association of British Travel Agents) held another Crisis Management Seminar at its London headquarters. docleaf®’s Chief Executive, Dr David Perl, was Event Chairman.

Delegates benefited from practical advice on many topics, including how to manage when disaster strikes, how to handle the media and how to set up office systems to cope in a crisis. The seminar ended with two crisis simulation exercises modelled on those from docleaf®’s casebook.

What none of the delegates could know, of course, was that six weeks later many of them would be giving up part of their holiday leave to deal with the appalling aftermath of that devastating tsunami on 26 December.

It has been reported that four UK tour operators have suffered client deaths, fortunately very few given that an estimated 6,500 UK clients were holidaying in the areas affected.

Lucky Escape
docleaf® has been involved “behind the scenes” and has helped as much as possible. As it happens, a qualified trauma counsellor and docleaf® Associate, Carole Marco, took up residence in Phuket, Thailand, a few months ago, and was fortunate enough to be visiting friends away from the beach on the morning in question, instead of going for a swim.

She has been working very long hours ever since, with little support, few resources and no payment, visiting the sick and injured in hospital, and comforting those who have suffered most. She reports that in Phuket “the medical care is pretty good and the hospitals well-organised” but that helping survivors come to terms with their grief and the realisation that loved ones reported missing may never be found is very tough work, even for a trained and experienced counsellor like Carole.

Governments Slow to Respond
One side issue from the Indian Ocean disaster is the slow reaction of government agencies. Foreign and Commonwealth Office staff, at home and abroad, at first seemed as overwhelmed as the victims by the magnitude of the disaster. Even when telephone help-lines had been set up, many callers were unable to get through.

Fortunately many travel companies had a trained Crisis Response Manager who swung into action immediately, setting up communication links and liaising with the media and international rescue organisations such as the Red Cross as well as the FCO to ensure that accurate news and information was readily available. Perhaps the start of a New Year is the time to reflect how your company would have coped in such circumstances.

Crisis Management News: 2005 | Crisis Management News: 2004 | Crisis Management News: 2003
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