The recent terror attacks in Paris were the worst to have taken place in the city in over 70 years and, while France mourned, a state of emergency was declared. Necessarily, the country tightened Border controls, flight and rail services were delayed and, as a consequence, many travellers were left unclear about their travel plans.
TravelManagers’ executive general manager Michael Gazal said his company’s focus in such an event is to provide their personal travel managers (PTMs) with as much information as possible, as quickly as possible, in order to track down and ensure the safety of any clients that may have been affected.
“It’s a sad reality in today’s world that we need to be prepared for the worst case scenario, be it a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. We have very clear plans and systems in place so that we can swing into action immediately and get on with the task of providing our PTMs with the appropriate client lists,” said Gazal.
The National Partnership Office (NPO), which has the responsibility of putting the crisis plan into action, was alerted to the situation in Paris within two hours of the first attack taking place, while events were still unfolding at the Bataclan theatre.
“Less than an hour later, we had provided our entire PTM network with a comprehensive Client Location Report, detailing all clients that were currently in Paris or would be arriving into any point in Paris between 1 and 20 November,” Gazal said.
In many cases, that information also included the name, phone number and address of the client’s accommodation arrangements, which further simplified the task of contacting clients. Throughout the weekend, the NPO continued to communicate any updates to its PTMs by email, SMS, intranet and TravelManagers’ Closed User Group Page on Facebook.
For the PTMs, this support, and the speed with which it was provided, was invaluable. Gayle Dawson, representative for Queensland’s Springfield Lakes, was one of the PTMs who has expressed her appreciation for the support of the NPO.
“Having the support of NPO when we are worried and trying to help our clients is so important and those efforts do not go unnoticed – we all really appreciate it so much.”
In the end, 25 PTMs had a total of 46 clients who were affected by the Paris terror attacks. PTMs were able to contact those clients to make adjustments to travel arrangements, keep them advised regarding airline announcements, insurance company advisory notices and other detail impacting on their journeys.
“We are lucky have some fantastic staff who are prepared to drop everything, even on a Saturday morning and over the weekend, to make this all happen. Without their dedication, it would be nearly impossible to provide our PTMs, and their clients, with the support that really need,” said Gazal.
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