The Business Travel Magazine June/July 2019

ARRIVALS
THE KNOWLEDGE
How to manage...
An extreme weather event
Hurricane season in the Caribbean is
always a cause for concern. But in 2017,
mega-cyclones Irma, Jose and Maria were
exceptionally fierce. Travel management
company Business Travel Direct had one
client with travellers across the region…
THE BACKGROUND
The 2017 Atlantic Hurricane season was
unprecedented. It consisted of 17 named
storms including ten hurricanes, with three
of these – Irma, Jose and
Maria – rating among the
biggest in recorded
history for the region.
The three storms alone
are estimated to have
been responsible for a
staggering 99% of the
$282billion damage
caused that year. In all,
more than 3,300 people were killed.
Early forecasts from meteorologists had
been for an average year of storms, although
this changed to a ‘slightly raised’ risk by the
start of August. One of Business Travel
Direct’s clients – a large hospitality business –
had 46 employees spread across the
Caribbean when Hurricane Irma, a category
5 storm, was identified on August 30.
“The weather is historically turbulent in the
Caribbean in August and September so we
always consider the potential risk our
travellers could face during this time,”
explains Business Travel Direct Operations
Manager, Mark Roberts. “But Irma, and then
Maria which followed two weeks later,
escalated really quickly.”
THE RESPONSE
Business Travel Direct received risk alerts
from the Met Office in
mid-August and began
its crisis planning.
“It required some
quick thinking to make
sure we had access to
the latest news and
used the time efficiently
to successfully evacuate
everyone,” says Roberts.
“We held a number of team briefings and
determined a course of action for the
travellers in the affected areas. The
operations team we assigned consisted of
our most experienced staff. They had 53
years of expertise between them.”
With Irma bringing winds of 190mph much
of the Caribbean was in lockdown, with
multiple airport closures, travel disruption
and loss of power.
“Beginning the evacuation process was
impossible because airports had closed and
most local boat travel to and from islands
barely made it out. Hurricane Maria
severely hindered recovery efforts for
everyone and every day the situation
seemed to change.”
THE SOLUTION
Business Travel Direct’s
security and duty of care
tool SMARTtrack,
powered by SAP Concur,
enables the creation of a
single database of
booked travel, with a filter to search for
specific travellers, clients, flights, locations
or risk profile. SMS and email alerts were
sent to all the client’s travellers in the
region, and Business Travel Direct reported
back to stakeholders with a list of detailed
traveller information and itineraries.
Having identified clients’ whereabouts and
safety, Business Travel Direct’s operations
team worked in shifts to provide an out-ofhours
service. To keep up with the situation
on the ground, it combined updates from
the media, travel providers, local suppliers
and tourist boards. Many islands lost
internet services so all communication was
by phone, where possible.
Getting travellers out was the issue. A
number had restrictive visas; others couldn’t
make it to airports even when seats on
flights were secured. This created an
additional burden of getting cancellation
fees waived and refunds on flights.
“The team worked closely with airlines to
source alternative routes and secure lastminute
seats, leveraging some industry
partnerships to give travellers the best
option,” says Roberts.
THE RESULT
Over a 30-day period
Business Travel Direct
safely repatriated 46
travellers. Moreover, the
operations team managed
to get £9,432 of
cancellation fees waived as a result
of travellers missing their flights and
obtained refunds totalling £7,622.
THEBUSINESSTRAVELMAG.COM
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