- 1. Mumbai Attacks A Business Response to Terror
2. Introduction
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- Director of Product Implementation & Documents
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- With more than 80 years in travel, Group Voyagers, Inc. is the
company that markets and sells the Globus family of brands Globus,
Cosmos, Monograms and Avalon Waterways which have given millions of
travelers memorable vacation moments and experiences while handling
all of the details, allowing them to relax and enjoy more more
sights, more insight and more fun.
3. Incident Response Team
- Team assembled in event of incidents
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- Coach accident with injuries
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- Ship/motor coach accidents
4. Preparation
- Our incident team has a series of steps it takes in any
incident to verify information, establish communications, determine
policies and regulate an incident.
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- We have our Incident Response manual to guide us
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- We have our well tenured staff to provide the experience
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- We have the leaders to make decisions
- What we have learned over the years
5. Mission Statement
- It is our intent to care first and foremost for clients and
their families when an incident occurs.We aim to provide that care
swiftly to minimize distress and disappointment.This frame of
reference should prevail when decisions are made in the initial
hours and days after an incident is recognized.All other business
and financial considerations related to the incident will be
regarded as secondary, and dealt with once the immediate needs are
responded to.
- All parts of Globus family of brands are expected to adopt this
standard when involved in resolving an incident.
6. Mumbai Attacks 7. Littleton (me) TorontoAustralia -
Operations Ground Handler India Office Background Information
Lugano 8. Notification 9. Situation Assessment
- Do we have any tours in the area?Any immediate danger to
travelers?
10.
- Record time (12 minute response)
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- Ask operations to check in with passengers.Operations incident
response team would handle on-site the passenger care and
concern.
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- Thanksgiving was back on!
NO ASSUMPTIONS 11. How Close?
- 3 Minutes later phone call from call center staff
- Trident connected by lobby to OBEROI!
- Initiate full incident response meet in War Room
TridentOberoiMrs. Jones 12. War Room 13. War Room what was
missing
- Had all the jacks set up for extra computers, but all the
computers were in the technology department.Everyone in technology
had left for the weekend
- 1 phone line not enough needed one for inbound calls, outbound
calls and one for back up if either was in use.Instead we had to
rely on personal phones to manage calls
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- Causes distractions when using a conference phone
Check that space is usable clear of objects 14. Communication
Guide states this: Incident had this: 15. First Learning
- Most travelers do not register with US Embassies while
traveling abroad
- Most of our travelers do not carry international mobile
phones
- We do not require the collection of emergency contact
information prior to departure.
16. Helpless
- Communicate with travel agents with passengers
- Prepare for media inquires.Prepare for passenger / agent
inquiries
17. Possible Scenarios
- Not being able to reach our passengers, we determined the
following were possible scenarios for them:
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- They escaped when the fire broke out in the hotel (there was
one blast in the lobby)
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- They were hiding in their rooms or elsewhere in the hotel
(or so we thought) 18. Resilient or crazy?
Expect the unexpected 19. Still no news
- Only information was from newscasts.Most on Taj hotel
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- Ground handlers also seems at a stand-still because local
authorities were not allowing them near the hotels or providing
information
- We needed to think about upcoming departures too
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- Closed for holiday weekend and next departure in 12 days.
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- Needed action plan for handling inquiries
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- Insurance coverage for cancellations due to the event
- What about other tour operators in the area.Could they help?Did
they need help?
- What about our India office?
20. Mrs. Jones our lifeline
- Her concerns were not expected
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- Not as concerned with terrorist
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- Mrs. Jones was not using cell but hotel phone
MAKE NO ASSUMPTIONS 21. Going Home 22. Hostages(and Mrs.
Jones)
- Update at 8:00 pm that there were 5 hostages being held on the
19 thfloor.
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- Our passengers were on the 20 th , 27 th , and 33 rd
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- Provided emergency phone numbers to her for Littleton and
Australia office
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- Error should have provided ground handler phone numbers
23. Good news
- Good news was finally received at 10:00pm from Canada
office
No news from staff & No news from police Worst part =
looking for instructions and getting none. 24. And so on Then the
rescue storming by the troops 25. Rescue Mission 26. 27. Return
Home
- We took care of all flights
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- Mrs. Jones continued to Dubai
- Met passengers at airport upon return home
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- Provided with senior management phone numbers
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- Offered counseling services
- Followed up a few days later to see how they were
adjusting
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- Further counseling offered
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- We also verified and picked up all expenses paid by the client
during the incident
- Final closure announcement sent to all personnel along with
instructions for proper protocol for media inquires
- A thank you follow up to everyone involved
28. Debriefing
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- Thorough communication.As soon as information was received from
one source, it was passed quickly.Passengers, ground handlers and
offices were pleased with the prompt replies
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- One point person for communications from each office
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- Excellent ground handler they were prepared with own Incident
Response preparations
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- Team remained focused on best interest of passengers.Mission
statement followed
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- Roles and responsibilities managed well we had the right
team
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- A variety of communication points for ground handler in initial
minutes
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- They were able to reach us when operations was not
available.That 30 minutes was critical
29. Debriefing continued
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- Initial communications we didnt go through operations and
started communications directly with ground handler.Hard to stop
that mid-stream.
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- Canada office started communicating with operations
directly.Created double work.They needed to work through us
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- Signage for potential passengers outside of hotel was not
available until many hours into the process. IF we had passengers
outside the hotel, we would have struggled to find them.
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- Emergency phone numbers need to be available 24 hours.Emergency
numbers were not answered
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- Not all incident response members had phones in which to check
email away from the office
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- During an incident is not time to question if further training
is needed for team
30. Debriefing continued
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- Smart phones rapid access to information
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- Reporting being able to pull reservation data instantly to get
snap shot of who is where on tour.
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- War room was not set up or updated correctly
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- Reporting tool was available but pre-canned reports are not
created (time loss to pull information)
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- Phone management inbound and outbound lines were not
available
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- Dont chain chairs to desks!(Watch cords and space set up)
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- Use the tools we had a room of whiteboard but found ourselves
all huddled around one piece of paper
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- If you use smart phones, can the team be disciplined enough to
turn them off?
31. Debriefing continued
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- No prior planning for how to travel to a destination quickly
i.e. how to secure visas
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- Client information is managed by the Travel Agent.We need to
collect and store it better
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- Team really watched our for each other, always asking on a
personal level if they were ok.Staff welfare also repeatedly
checked in to ask
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- Recommend members of the same household not be on the same
incident response team
32. Debriefing continued
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- Email was excellent for logging and tracking information
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- Media statements developed and stored with appropriate
access
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- Counseling firm was prepared and ready when we needed them
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- When using email to communicate, change the subject line for
each new communication string.
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- Teach and reconfirm when and how to reply to all
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- Smart phones cannot access documents via links to internal
systems
33. Final Considerations
- How would the situation have been different if we had 40 people
instead of 5 impacted
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- We would have opened our 1-800 crisis line which we can gate to
certain work areas
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- We would have struggled with out-of-town schedules, leaving us
with less trained staff
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- We would have established shifts for the incident (not everyone
working the 48 hours all the way through)
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- Need to establish better communication plan with family
members: establish one family member in which to communicate
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- We would need more frequent holding statements and media
updates
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- We recognized two different levels which would change the
situation
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- Passengers not in harms way
34. Conclusion
- Situation was one we considered, but only high level.Need to be
prepared for anything to happen
- We had a fortunate outcome.
- Care and concern first and foremost
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- Dont get caught up in power roles or finances
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- Be prepared with information that is accurate and timely
- No incident will fit neatly into your guides and manuals
- Dont make assumptions ask the questions (even those in your
head ask out loud)