Volcanos that erupt and disrupt the world’s travel plans don’t happen every day but

travel disruptions and threats to travelers do. It often takes a dynamic or ampl
ified event to display just how much planning and oversight goes into day-to-day
risk management, in order to reveal just how ineffective the process may be ove
rall.
Travel buyers have admitted that the volcano eruption in Iceland has taken a sub
stantial bite out of their 2010 travel budget, if a new survey is to be believed
.
Polling its international members, the Association of Corporate Travel Executive
s (ACTE) found that some 71% of global travel buyers said the disruption in Euro
pe has resulted in a “substantial” economic hit on their travel spend for the year.
Of this 71%, 36% percent described the unanticipated expenses as “severe”. An additi
onal 21% indicated the hit was slight, while 8% reported being unaffected.
“It is important to note that the financial factors of this crisis have a special
significance in the light of the fragile global economic recovery for business i
n general and business travel in particular,” said ACTE president Richard Crum. “If
even just 1% of the industry’s financial contribution to the global economy were a
ffected, that would equate to roughly 4 billion euros.”
Crum added that travel managers have been preparing for contagion, pandemic, con
flict, war, and earthquakes for years. For many travelers, that level of prepare
dness was reflected in their corporate response to the eruptions in Iceland. For
ty-seven percent of companies responding to the ACTE survey had a plan in place
to accommodate stranded travelers. Twenty-nine percent did not have a specific p
rogram for this crisis, but moved forward with implementing one cobbled from oth
er crisis programs. Twenty-five percent believe this crisis is so extraordinary
and rare, that no preparation could have dealt with these developments and have
no immediate intentions to change their policies.
The unanticipated expense of the crisis has already taken a big bite out of exis
ting travel budgets for 2010, but survey respondents believe the crisis would no
t force the company to travel less in 2010 (76%). Twenty-two percent were unsure
as the crisis is ongoing and 2% said yes.
Stories continue to emerge of how travelers and companies have been forced to sl
eep in airport terminals, pay thousands of dollars for taxi rides across countri
es or cancel major business activities, all the while suffering substantial prod
uctivity losses of some of their company’s most valuable human resource group. It
is not acceptable that company travelers be subjected to the same limited respon
se or emergency interventions as your everyday tourists, in the event of such wi
de spread disruptions. If you have been significantly affected, you have failed
and your system just doesn’t work.
Poor surveillance of developing events, superficial plans and even less effectiv
e decision making methodologies reduce workable response options; if any exist a
fter such systemic failure. Failure to identify and plan for whole-of-journey ri
sk management leads to situations where your traveler/s is stranded in transit w
ithout a valid visa forcing them to sleep en mass in terminals with limited solu
tions. Similar oversights lead to false hopes that the situation will correct it
self and “anytime soon” everything will be okay. After all this, if you believe that
the overall situation will return to normal and you and your travelers will be
on their way immediately after the airspace ban has been lifted, again; you’re in
for a nasty shock.
Numerous managers and travelers now understand the various roles required to ach
ieve productive, efficient and safe travel management. Your insurance company is
more than capable, and perhaps willing, to process your claim for losses and ex
penditure incurred but you are still stuck at the airport without a workable sol
ution and suffering a major loss in productivity for those that are typically wi
thin the top 20% of your human capital earning (compensation and business contri
bution) demographic. Your cheque will arrive in the mail and tangible loss/expen
diture compensated. It still doesn’t get you from A to B or even via D. Your local
office or contacts don’t possess the network or experience to manage your require
ments, especially when the rest of the world is scrambling for the same resource
s. Those without wild stories of adventure to relate after this event are not in
clusive of a well thought out plan and capacity to act. Those with a more boring
story to tell but maintained productivity and contained costs, all the while pr
eserving the safety of their people, have in their team brokers, insurance, trav
el management companies and assistance. Which is the smarter business option?
Total failure resulting in numerous stranded people are the result of high walle
d departments without collaboration. Lack of unification and leadership/ownershi
p in the practice of travel risk management has lead to wide spread helplessness
and stranding. If you have key executives traveling for leisure also affected t
hat will prevent them returning to work as scheduled, you have yourself to blame
and your appreciation has proven to be too shallow.
This is not over. Hotels are likely to default on bookings for pending travel as
they still haven’t been able to clear the backlog of stranded travelers. Ground t
ransport will be stretched and prices will rise even further. Government departm
ents will debate the options but essentially there is nothing you can do to infl
uence their inconsistent influence. Airlines will be pressured into economic dec
isions long before safety data is consolidated or examined under normal paramete
rs. The thousands of inbound and outbound travellers will take much longer than
a few days to clear, not forgetting those adding to the mele than need/want to t
ravel this week. Overtime payments, supplies of food and water to airports, cash
reserves and transnational collaboration will all act upon the solutions and ch
oices. It is one thing to read about this in the media but do you really have a
handle on what is happening and how it affects you? Failure to do so will compou
nd past mistakes too.
There was adequate warning that this event would have far reaching implications.
The impact could be calculated. There was opportunity to implement plans or dev
elop an effective solution to support the objective and effective, rehearsed man
agement teams would have had sufficient time to assess the impact and act accord
ingly. The final impact was not fate but determined by everything you have done
to date. You have been weighed, you have been measured; have you been found want
ing?