Image via Shutterstock
A one-day counter-terror seminar for travel companies is being billed as the first of its kind to help the trade cope with future attacks.
The free event in London on May 24 is being organised by the industry’s anti-fraud group Prevention of Fraud in Travel (PROFiT), which claims no other training course is currently available for travel organisations to help them understand the risks of terrorism.
The seminar aims to help the trade learn about how to deal with a terror-related attack, the current terror threat, companies’ liabilities and responsibilities in such an event, and emergency planning.
Speakers include officers from the Counter Terrrorism & Serious Crime Directorate of the City of London Police as well as security, legal, insurance and emergency planning experts.
These include Liam Morrissey, chief executive of security risk management company MS Risk; Alan Pattison, account director of insurance broker Tasker Partners; lawyer Simon Murfitt, of Keystone Law, and PROFiT chairman Barry Gooch, who will discuss emergency planning.
It will include a three-hour simulated terrorist exercise ‘Project Argus’, an initiative developed by the National Counter Terrorism Security Office, in which attendees are organised into groups and have to make decisions on how to prevent and survive a terrorist attack.
The seminar is aimed at all sectors of the industry, from airlines, cruiselines and hotels to tour operators and travel agents.
Barry Gooch, chairman of PROFiT and also a speaker on emergency planning at the event, said 75 representatives from a variety of travel companies, including airlines and tour operators, have already signed up to attend.
The event can host up to 100 people and Gooch said a second seminar could be held depending on the response.
“This is the first time we have done this,” said Gooch. “This is an opportunity to spend a day with counter terror police and experts. There is no manual to tell you what to do and we want to help them.”
The event at Fieldfisher’s offices at Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane, London, EC4R 3TT and is aimed at managers in particular. To reserve a place, email barry@profit.uk.com with the words ‘Counter terror seminar’ in the subject heading.