The Institute of Travel and Meetings' crisis management hub has officially been launched.
Project Phoenix took shape after the ash cloud in 2010, when thousands of passengers were stranded across the world due to the eruption of a volcano in Iceland closing European airspace.
The unexpected nature of the ash crisis and the complexities around trying to repatriate stranded travellers abroad prompted ITM to set up an online crisis management centre for future disruption, which has now gone live.
Jamie Hindhaugh, ITM's chairman, said business travel buyers had found it difficult to know where to go to get the right information as the ash crisis developed.
“At its core,” he said, Phoenix is “a tool to support buyers and travel managers” in the UK during times of crisis, when inbound and outbound travel is interrupted.
“It will act as a one-stop shop for anyone before, during and after a crisis to improve their programme management at times of major service disruption.”
It also aims to encourage communication between buyers and suppliers, to ensure that “as an industry we work together in an informed way”, added Hindhaugh.
The Phoenix hub, at www.itm.org.uk/phoenix, is powered by the Advantage Travel Group, and uses a website to offer information on disruption affecting the UK business travel industry.
When a crisis happens, which could range from Heathrow being evacuated due to a security alert to a hurricane in the US, regular service updates from travel suppliers are uploaded onto the website.
It also has a “share zone”, where buyers and suppliers can swap information, and a “knowledge centre”, where white papers and documents about the lessons learnt after a crisis can be uploaded.
Buyers will also be able to test their own crisis management systems and benchmark them against other companies' programmes.
The site will also feature, from early 2012, a crisis toolkit, showing relevant contacts during travel disruption.
Currently in beta format, the service updates section of the hub is free to access for all ITM members, while the rest can only be viewed by fee-paying ITM Business members.
The next step in the development of Phoenix is to get buyers and suppliers on board, to engage with the UK government about business travel during a crisis, and to test out the hub with a real crisis.