NEWS TRAVEL WEEKLY BUSINESS CONTINUED FROM THE BACK


something happens in the Caribbean, people may stop going to the Caribbean.” However, Tadros said: “In the Middle East, we live in a bad neighbourhood. There is no way to change that. “There is a lot of ignorance [outside the Middle East], but Jordanians don’t know exactly what is happening in the US. Why should Americans know what is happening in Jordan?” Moaney described social media as “a challenge”, saying: “Everybody thinks they are a journalist, but they’re not. They’re citizens who might not understand geography.” Donald Steel, associate direc-


tor for crisis communications at Kenyon International, stressed the need to respond rapidly, telling the summit: “You have 15 minutes [in a crisis].” Steel cited an Asiana Airlines


crash in San Francisco in 2013 when an eyewitness tweet was sent within a minute of the disaster. He said: “Asiana wanted an hour [to react]. The airline needed to say within 15 minutes ‘We’re getting reports of an incident. We’ll communicate more as soon as we have more. But our first thoughts are for our passengers and people.’” However, Steel disagreed


that destinations should look to user-generated content to reassure travellers. He said: “I’m wary of any citizen giving security advice.” Damian Cook, USAID Best consultant to the Jordan Tourism Board, agreed, saying: “Safety is not a marketing message. If your message is you are a safe country, it says you probably aren’t.” Steel dismissed the impact of most social media, saying: “It’s often said everything is visible now, but the vast majority of stuff filmed never goes anywhere.”


Resilience Through Tourism Summit: Global experts in tourism and


‘Travel sector fails to fully appreciate its cyber risks’


Cyber resilience has become “fundamental” to travel, but there is insufficient perception of the risks, according to a leading specialist in disaster management.


Professor Lee Miles of Bournemouth University’s Disaster Management Centre told the Resilience Through Tourism Summit in Jordan: “Risk is rising exponentially. “Cybersecurity is becoming


more and more problematic. It’s a disaster if networks go down even for a few hours. Yet we don’t have sufficient risk perception in travel and tourism. We have move- ment in terms of technology and behaviour, but we don’t have cor- responding movement in security.” Miles insisted: “The cyber


resilience of travel and tourism is fundamentally important. “Most systems are required


to be always on and there is an expectation they will be secure. If you don’t ensure they are, you suffer huge reputational damage.” He said: “We have to build


Resilience starts with prevention, says US official


Resilience is among “the most important” issues in travel and tourism, the US government’s most senior travel official told industry leaders in Jordan. Isabel Hill, director of the National Travel and Tourism Office at the US Department of Commerce, said: “Issues we deal with can be a matter of life and death.” She told the summit: “Resilience


70 travelweekly.co.uk 26 July 2018 MILES: ‘The cyber resilience of travel is fundamentally important’


contingency plans. Investment in staff is a priority. But there is a split between having the technology and training personnel.” Miles told the summit: “The


move to big data and the internet of things worries me intensely. It is connecting systems and we need the connections to be secure. It creates a single point of failure.” He added “Public-private partnership resilience [in the industry] has to be


complementary and seamless, and


is an evolving discipline. In the US, 9/11 devastated our travel and tourism. There was a 50% decline in air passengers, a 50% decline in hotel service. The sector was totally unprepared.” Hill emphasised “the importance of engagement between public and private sectors” and said: “Resilience begins with prevention.” She noted “a fear” that public security messages “will put off visitors” but insisted: “There is no evidence of that.” Hill said: “Best practice begins at the destination level.”


we are not anywhere near that.” Ramy Kheder, Mastercard


director for enterprise security solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, highlighted rapid advances in the biometric authentication of transactions through facial recognition, voice recognition and thumb prints. He said: “Security is only as


strong as the weakest link. We need to be two steps ahead of the fraudsters. We need to secure transactions from end to end.”


HILL: ‘Resilience [in the travel sector] is an evolving discipline’


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