Crisis management 101 from the eTourism expert : Lessons for stranded passengers and travel organisations

Crisis management 101 from the eTourism expert : Lessons for stranded passengers and travel organisations
by Professor Dimitrios Buhalis Bournemouth University 

MY EXPERIENCE
After 20 years of very intensive travelling with years of experience in using systems and travel resources, I found myself stranded in Barcelona on my way back from giving a keynote at the World Tourism Organisation on Mountain Tourism in Andorra due to the volcano ash situation. Admittedly Barcelona is a wonderful place to be stranded, I have an intimate knowledge of the place, had fantastic company and friends and I know the best cervezerias, pulperias and gelaterias in town. With friends and cash at hand it felt like an enforced mini holiday rather than an ordeal. I was hoping that the ash triggered travel chaos would have settled in a couple of days and things will go back to normal. Being an optimistic soul it is quite difficult for me to see things pessimistically. However the closure of Barcelona airport for the critical five hours on Sunday morning and the endless queues in the ticketing offices and the opening and then closure of Heathrow on Monday afternoon really tested my last reserves of optimism. I feared that I will not be able to return to the UK for weeks! Not that I would be really unhappy to stay in Barcelona for a period! Then seeing a lady complaining to police that her bag was snagged in the Rablas and a large family eating spaghetti on top of their suitcases in Barcelonetta clearly demonstrated the suffering that people had to deal with.