NGO TRAVEL
AS-SULAYMANIYAH
EPICENTRE OF EARTHQUAKE
therefore, to encourage as much forward calendar planning as possible in order to achieve better value for money whenever the opportunity presents itself.” He adds: “We find that for many
UK charities, their travel has a strong domestic focus, and the flexibility of rail booking solutions, such as Evolvi with its multiple profile options, really allows us to tailor programmes to suit each client and maximise savings. We’re seeing 20 per cent savings on rail spend in some organisations that are strong at mandating, plus we put a lot of time into educating clients in the free provision of railcards to staff in order to further reduce costs. “We spend a lot of our time helping clients
identify situations where advance bookings can be easier to achieve and are pretty much going to guarantee them savings. We then circulate information among travellers and bookers giving them practical advice
“For many UK charities, their
travel has a strong domestic focus”
about how to secure better rates. We also encourage early booking on restrictive tickets if we see a reasonable percentage of bookings being unchanged by clients. If they bank the savings as often as possible, when things do go wrong and potentially new tickets have to be bought, the client will have amassed a fund of savings to help them defray the higher costs of later bookings.” Sound advice, surely, but sadly lacking
in the rib-tickling department. Then again, not-for-profit travel isn’t a laughing matter, unless that is you’re a journalist writing a feature on it and having to hear the standard one-liner yet again, and laughing as though you’ve never heard it before.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Dealing with disasters
ON 12 NOVEMBER 2017, a 7.3 magnitude earthquake struck along the Iran-Iraq border close to the city of As Sulaymaniyah, roughly 240km north of Baghdad. More than 500 people are reported to have died, with local officials estimating at least 6,000 injured and 70,000 rendered homeless. Less than 24 hours later, the
International Medical Corps (IMC) had a four-strong emergency response team in place. Between them, the doctor, two nurses and a pharmacist carried enough medical supplies to treat 1,000 people, with more waiting to be despatched at a moment’s notice. Devastating though the earthquake
was, from a travel management perspective the initial response to the disaster was relatively straightforward. The Iraq-based team was sent in by
IMC’s Iraqi country director Bogdan Dumitru. As Sulaymaniyah is well- served by road links and the nearest rail-head, at Kirkuk, is only 90km to the west. “We are coordinating with local and national health officials to identify additional ways we might be able to support relief efforts,” Dumitru said. Transporting manpower and supplies to the stricken region was challenging, but not insurmountable. But, as IMC’s global travel manager Larry Bague makes clear, that’s not always the case. “Travel is part of the emergency response planning team and we try to get our first responders on the ground before an anticipated disaster, but afterwards it presents its challenges. “For Haiti 2010 [a magnitude 7.0 earthquake followed by a cholera epidemic] we deployed staff that evening from the US to Santo Domingo
and then used military and UN flights to get to Port au Prince,” he says. “For the Nepal earthquake in 2015, we contracted with helicopter services; for the civil war in Libya a few years back, we entered via neighbouring countries and across the Mediterranean from Malta by boat and ship.” Traveller safety and security are very high priorities. “On all deployments to our field offices our security will provide in-country information along with the latest security briefing,” explains Bague. “All travellers are required to complete a video training and quiz, and attain a passing grade prior to deployment or they don’t travel. It’s our security department’s call to make any exceptions.” While IMC’s teams boast CVs listing highly specialised skillsets, how good are they at travelling? “Some have the luxury of knowing what to pack (tent, hiking shoes, water purifying kits) while others have to adjust on the fly,” says Bague. “After the recent Caribbean hurricanes, some islands wanted people to arrive being self-sufficient – not relying on the limited resources of water and food. “That’s where our first responders/ assessment teams play a critical role, informing staff what to expect and what is needed. Each emergency presents its own unique set of challenges.” Specialist TMCs are thin on the ground, but Bague doesn’t see that as too much of an issue. “We’ve always worked with a TMC that specialised or had access to humanitarian air fares through a third-party agreement in addition to their normal airline agreements. Our ground and hotel agreements are led by the TMC’s expertise, but most in-country ground transportation is usually contracted locally, as are hotel stays, for security reasons. “I believe the successful TMCs can make a profit by gearing their vendor relations around their customers’ third- world city-pair markets and understanding the service platforms needed when working with NGOs.”
BBT January/February 2018 133
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