The travel industry faces different situations and events that can turn into crises and have the potential to impact your day-to-day business.

Planning for a crisis or an emergency situation can help to make sure that your business is prepared to respond and able to handle whatever situation may come your way.

Having an effective plan and well-trained staff can enable a business to respond to a crisis or an emergency situation quickly and efficiently whilst maintaining business continuity. This will demonstrate the strength of a business and give confidence to customers who are due to travel, confidence to customers affected by the incident, confidence for staff managing the situations and  will help reduce potential negative media coverage as a result of any incident.

In February ABTA welcomed delegates from across its membership to the Travel Essentials Crisis Management one-day seminar. The seminar provided an opportunity for people to come together and hear from experts in the field and to share their own experiences and challenges.

Sessions delivered by a host of crisis management experts included:

• Planning and developing a crisis management plan
• Understanding the legal implications of a crisis
• Practical exercises and case studies on emergency and crisis situations
• The importance of looking after customers during a crises.

The delegates had the opportunity to meet and listen to a presentation from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Crisis Management team, network with industry colleagues and meet the ABTA team. This practical and interactive day was a greatly received and delegates who attended provided excellent feedback. Further ABTA crises management events will be held during the course of the year...watch this space.

There’s still time to register for our second Travel Essentials event, Destination Health and Safety Management – an introduction. This is being held on Tuesday 10 March, for more information and to book go to the events area of our website.