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PATA: Preparedness is key to avoid crises

The recently held PATA seminar for risk and crisis management sent out a clear message to the industry - that preparedness is the key to avoid any risks and crises. By Anupama Sushil

The PATA workshop on Risk and Crisis Management conducted by Bert van Walbeek, the 'Master of Disaster' recently in New Delhi was surely well-timed, when India is at the threshold of a tourism boom and needs a concrete disaster management system in place. The Bangkok-based speaker who runs his boutique consulting company was hosted by PATA India Chapter.

Preparedness works. It is always advisable to take action to protect and reduce risk and crisis. Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) believes that a step-by-step procedure on how to prepare, respond to and recover from disasters is important. But the main task lies in identifying these symptoms of crisis and to recognise the threats and risks.

At this point of time, when the world is looking at south Asia as a potential tourist destination, it is our responsibility to be able to sustain this sudden inflow of tourists with preparation. In the Indian context, inefficient disaster management or no disaster management can be looked upon as being one of the major reasons why India gets fewer tourists in comparison to the neighboring Asian countries.

Reputation at stake

PATA also recognises that with an effective risk management system, managing the reputation of the destination gets a lot easier as the destination would be able to meet the international standards of managing crisis. Taking care of visitors, speed and efficiency in returning to normal, and maintaining business continuity would be considered when evaluating a destination's image and reputation in the international market.

Explaining more about the various shocks and threats, and phases of crisis management, van Walbeek, a hotelier, marketer and a lecturer, gave a thorough insight on the various aspects during the seminar. According to PATA, crisis can be defined as 'any situation that has the potential to affect long-term confidence in an organisation or a product, or which may interfere with its ability to continue operating normally.'

According to van Walbeek, the first step towards avoiding a crisis is to identify various sources of risk and the possible impact it will have on the region's tourism. Then came the ideas on how to avoid the risks along with implementation and availability of adequate resources to be put in place. He added that planning will help get over risks by 70 to 80 per cent otherwise there is almost no chance. He strongly recommended keeping a running implementation cycle of identifying, analysing, planning, tracking, controlling and communicating is essential.

Agreeing to the idea, Deepak Bhatnagar, vice president of Le Passage to India, a participant at the training seminar said that such an exercise opens one's mind and makes the think-tank to work towards a proper plan to deal with crisis of different nature.

Strong leadership

Stressing on the role played by the leaders and co-ordination among different parties, van Walbeek said that in order to do useful planning and effective implementation, strong leaders are to be looked up to. "It's their duty to effectively handle hostility and confusion and structure decisions. A strong leadership will help take through any crises," he said.

He also rated co-ordination and partnerships as essential ways to achieve tourism safety. Integration between national tourism administrations, national police, airlines and transportation companies, tour operators association and tourism safety and security-oriented research and documentation centers will have a strong impact on the way things are being dealt. With all of these coming together a crisis management centre can be developed with emergency resources, regional and national available expertise and 'stand by' experts to enhance safety or rescue for tourism stakeholders.

The core issue of the four levels of crisis management suggested by PATA was later explained by the speaker and was highlighted to be the most essential of the entire exercise. Starting with the Reduction stage, dealing with detecting early warning signals to lower the impact; the Readiness stage focusing on preparing plans and running exercises; Response stage involving executing operational and communication plans; and lastly the Recovery stage by taking the organisation to normality. These four essential stages will ensure recovery at the earliest.

Due to the continuous risks that prevails, Bhatnagar said that these sessions help a lot as normally we tend to ignore precautions in spite of knowing its importance. "These sessions must be organised on regular basis as they create the awareness and remind us the importance of having a plan to deal such issues," he said.

Media management

van Walbeek, talking about the fourth stage of how the media and information management plays a role in making public reactions by presenting a picture in the right manner, said that communicating the crisis management plan to the media will enhance the safety perception of the destination and help plan and prepare for any potential crisis by establishing a positive relationship with the new media. It will help develop a communication database of media and stakeholders.

Avantika Dhar, assistant general manager of Tourism Finance Corporation of India, said, "Preparedness is the only way to avoid risks. With new developments come newer risks and for overcoming those risks new techniques are being developed. This is an ongoing process." Towards the end, Bhatnagar added that it is an important tool for a big organisation and said, "Today's business is very demanding and we have to depend on various suppliers to work out the risk and crisis management manual and ensure that the entire team is made aware of the processes to deal with any crisis."