Event details ABTA’s essential training day will provide practical guidance on preparing for, managing and recovering from a crisis. Attend this comprehensive day to ensure your crisis management plan is ready for the winter season and beyond. About the event As recent years have shown, the travel industry can be unpredictable with crises taking many forms including extreme weather, geopolitical challenges and health outbreaks. A crisis management plan with action guidelines is essential in enabling you to respond in the correct way to a crisis to protect employees, customers and other stakeholders.Hear insights into what the emerging threats to the travel industry are and what you can do to prepare for them. Learn about the support that is available to you, and travellers’ perceptions and expectations.During this practical day you will look at your crisis management plan and ensure it meets the needs of your business and the ever-changing travel landscape. You will gain tips on how to communicate this with the business, your supply chain and other stakeholders, and how to ensure buy-in from senior management. A practical exercise will provide guidance on reviewing and simulating your plan and the importance of testing. During a crisis you will be responsible for providing a duty of care to both employees and customers, hear a legal expert outline your obligations under the Package Travel Regulations and the potential legal impacts as a result of inadequate crisis preparedness and response.There will also be in-depth guidance on recovery after a crisis, focusing on how you can work with the destination on health and safety considerations and when is the right time to return. You will hear a presentation on the importance of looking after the health and wellbeing of your team, how to prepare staff and provide ongoing support post-crisis.The agenda will include case study presentations from organisations who have experienced crisis and how they responded to support staff and customers in destination. Speakers Moderator: Angela Hills MBE, Head of Destinations, ABTA Angie Hills MBE is the Head of Destinations at ABTA – The Travel Association, where she leads on destination operations, health, safety and security, crisis and incident management. She serves as a primary liaison for UK and international government representatives, as well as destination tourism authorities, on a wide range of destination related initiatives.Angie is a respected voice in the travel industry, regularly speaking at UK and international conferences. She delivers training on destination health and safety, operational and crisis response, to suppliers and government bodies in destinations. She also represents the industry on international committees focused on destination health, safety and security matters.At ABTA, Angie chairs the Health & Safety and Operational Committees—key forums where members collaborate to address and resolve destination related challenges. Her leadership in this area has been widely recognised: she received a police commendation from New Scotland Yard for her contributions to counter-terrorism efforts and was awarded an MBE in the King’s New Year Honours List for her services to improving health, safety, and security standards for British travellers abroad.With over 35 years of experience in the travel industry, Angie began her career in 1988, holding various management roles both in the UK and overseas for a major UK tour operator. In 1998, she was appointed Head of Health and Safety and Operational Support for the Federation of Tour Operators (FTO) and the International Federation of Tour Operators (IFTO). Since the merger of FTO with ABTA in 2008, Angie has continued to lead destination operations and safety initiatives with dedication and expertise. Speakers include: Iain Bough, Manager Emergency Response Planning, Jet2.com & Jet2holidays Nicola Butler-Moore, Manager, Operational Resilience, Carnival UK Donna Mehmet, Senior Destinations Executive, ABTA Donna Mehmet Donna started her travel career in Greece in 1999, working for a large UK tour operator in the overseas operations office. After working in a number of summer and winter sun resorts in Europe and a ski season, Donna went on to become Commercial Manager based in Jamaica and Goa.After five years working overseas Donna returned to the UK and took up a position as Health and Safety Officer for a large UK tour operator.In this role Donna travelled extensively carrying out health and safety audits of overseas hotels, excursions and transport providers.Donna Mehmet joined ABTA in 2010 in the Destinations team where she coordinates activities relating to health, safety, crisis and operational issues affecting destinations for ABTA, its members and the ABTA sub-committees. She is one of a team of four on the ABTA out of hours crisis team. Claire Mulligan, Head of Travel, DWF Claire Mulligan Claire leads DWF’s travel team. She handles all manner of travel liability issues and litigation arising from incidents including aircraft, cruise ships, multi-vehicle or coach collisions, drownings and injuries sustained in pools or from balcony falls, hurricanes, mountaineering and climbing accidents and sickness outbreaks.In addition to defending claims she drafts tour operator and travel agents’ terms and conditions, supplier contracts, crisis manuals and health and safety addendums. She also has a wealth of inquest and regulatory expertise and advises management boards on risk management, and health and safety issues.She is an expert in crisis management and provides her clients with a 24/7 crisis management response helpline. Chambers UK and The Legal 500 UK recognise Claire as a Leading Lawyer. Chambers UK report that "Claire Mulligan's extensive experience in the travel sector enables her to expertly handle claims concerning accidents abroad.", “Claire is the number one lawyer in the tour ops world. I would not want anyone else representing us” and The Legal 500 describes her as ‘invaluable’ and ‘a bright star on the travel scene’. Becky Pearce, Incident & Crisis Manager, TUI UK & Ireland Becky Pearce Becky has worked within the travel industry for 30 years. Having worked in a range of management roles both overseas and in the UK, Becky has significant experience in crisis management, responding to a broad range of incidents including natural disasters, security incidents, aircraft accidents and flight disruption. In March 2024 Becky was appointed as Incident and Crisis Manager for TUI UK&I with responsibility for the triage, management, and coordination of all high-profile incidents. Heather Pennock, Destinations Manager – Health, Safety, Crisis and Operations, ABTA Heather Pennock Heather is the Destinations Manager at ABTA, with responsibility for destination operations, health and safety, crisis management and incident management. She is one of ABTA’s key points of contact in the Destinations team where she coordinates activities in relation to health, safety, crisis and operational issues affecting destinations for ABTA, its Members and the FTO sub-committee. She is also a key member of the on-call crisis response team. Heather has over 25 years travel industry experience. Prior to joining ABTA in 2015 she worked for a number of years for a major international airline in a range of operational roles, including crisis management. Rachel Williams, Deputy Head Crisis Management Department (Operations, Innovation & Training), FCDO Benefits Benefits of attending Understand the emerging threats facing the travel industryGet an update on your legal obligations and responsibilitiesDevelop a sound crisis management plan to prepare for any eventualityLearn from the experiences of others and hear how others in the travel industry responded to crisesTake part in a practical exercise to review, simulate and test your plansHear how to work with the destination following a crisis and when is the best time to reinstate and promote the destinationGet an understanding of the impact of a crisis on your staff and how to look after their psychological and physical wellbeing Who should attend?The event is ideal for anyone working in the travel industry with responsibility for destinations, health and safety and crisis management including: Crisis management and operational teamsCEOs and directorsCommunications and PR teamsHealth & safety teamsCustomer service and care teamsMarketing and product teamsLegal teams Thank you again, a great variety of speakers today covering many topics including emerging risk, changes in the risk management plans as a result and support that is out there in the travel industry. Yvonne Ramsay, Hotelplan From start to finish we were totally engaged and learnt so much which is the reason for our attendance. The venue was great and the day exceeded our expectations thank you very much. Dale Fitzgerald, Dalrew Overall it was well run, great speakers and you could see the effort put into organising it. Well done all. Andy Morris, TUI Prices ABTA members & Partners Early Bird member rate - £269 Standard member rate - £299Early bird rates will expire on 27 March.This includes lunch and refreshments throughout the day, all delegate materials, presentations and an attendee certificate.Make payment by credit or debit card.View our booking terms and conditions here.*To qualify for the ABTA Member/Partner discount you must have a current ABTA Member/Partner number or your application must be in progress when the event takes place. Register now Non-members Early Bird member rate - £419 Standard member rate - £449Early bird rates will expire on 27 March.This includes lunch and refreshments throughout the day, all delegate materials, presentations and an attendee certificate.Make payment by credit or debit card.View our booking terms and conditions here. Register now Discounts Book three places and get 50% off the third place.(This discount will be automatically applied when you book online.)If you are looking to book for a larger group please contact events@abta.co.uk for a bespoke discount. Register now
Thank you again, a great variety of speakers today covering many topics including emerging risk, changes in the risk management plans as a result and support that is out there in the travel industry. Yvonne Ramsay, Hotelplan
From start to finish we were totally engaged and learnt so much which is the reason for our attendance. The venue was great and the day exceeded our expectations thank you very much. Dale Fitzgerald, Dalrew
Overall it was well run, great speakers and you could see the effort put into organising it. Well done all. Andy Morris, TUI
