In the holiday airport chaos, DER Travel and Tourism help teams were on hand to answer passengers' questions and provide tips to speed up the process one: Ms Gerhardt, after breathing a sigh of relief that the impact of coronavirus on tourism was easing, the next shock came with the summer chaos at German airports. How did you and your team deal with it?

Melanie Gerhardt: "Once our crisis management team had the effects of the pandemic on Travel and Tourism largely under control, we had to adapt to a new challenge. With the increasing easing of travel restrictions in Germany and the holiday destinations, a wave of travel had set in that hardly anyone had thought possible. Airports and airlines were not prepared for the situation and were overwhelmed by the rush. This resulted in the familiar flight chaos with long waiting times at airports, flight cancellations and thousands of lost suitcases.

But here too, DER Travel and Tourism's crisis management team knew what to do. Among other things, we sent help teams, a kind of rapid reaction force, to particular hotspots. Where necessary, these employees supported our guests before their holiday, directly after landing or even after their holiday."

one: How were your help teams able to help in concrete terms?

Melanie Gerhardt: "For example, they helped at the airports concerned by answering the many questions about waiting times at security checks and giving tips on how to get hand luggage through the checkpoint as quickly as possible. Guests with limited mobility were given special support. Our helpteamers also assisted travellers stranded at German airports, for example by filling out lost luggage reports, and supported our hotline in the back office, which acted as a link to the airlines. They even flew to destinations themselves, for example to personally ensure that luggage left behind by a large number of travellers was delivered to their destinations in Germany."

one: Where did these good spirits come from? It was said everywhere that there was no staff to be found.

Melanie Gerhardt: "They were all employees of DER Travel and Tourism who stepped in. They spontaneously agreed to help out at various German airports at the weekends. In August, two help team members even flew to Crete for a (short) night to bring numerous suitcases home from a large number of travellers."

one: Such a commitment from colleagues is certainly not a matter of course..

Melanie Gerhardt: "Yes! Thanks to these missions, we were at least able to make the incredibly stressful situation more bearable for the travellers and solve some problems unconventionally. Of course, this also went down very well with our guests. We received a lot of positive feedback, especially for such services, which are by no means a matter of course. And the help team members are also full of positive energy about the success of their assignments - even though it is a very strenuous job. But ultimately, our team has helped to reduce the chaos in the entire sector. They have every right to be proud of that!"

one: A look back at the first years of the corona crisis: you have been a crisis manager at DER Travel and Tourism since 2001. Have you ever experienced anything like this before?

Melanie Gerhardt: "I am, we are, used to intensive operations and 24/7 services. But a crisis situation as complex as corona has eclipsed anything we've ever experienced before. The crisis issues also changed. It was now necessary to deal intensively with hygiene and entry requirements as well as to activate contacts with foreign authorities and representations. Of course, always with the aim of sounding out the possibilities of restarting Travel and Tourism."

one: And right at the beginning, the incredible repatriation of thousands of travellers..

Melanie Gerhardt: "That's right. From March to 9 April 2020, there was the biggest repatriation campaign in the history of the entire Travel and Tourism industry. DER Travel and Tourism's crisis management team was extensively involved in this, managing the entire repatriation, coordinating with the specialist departments and ensuring that thousands of stranded holidaymakers worldwide were able to return home safely. The coronavirus began its advance during this unprecedented repatriation operation. And DER Travel and Tourism's crisis management team was suddenly faced with new tasks."

one: How do you manage to maintain an overview in a crisis situation as complex as corona?

Melanie Gerhardt: "It was absolutely essential for us to stay close to the action at all times and to have a fully developed pandemic management catalogue. You have to keep an eye on the situation in real time - later also thanks to newly developed digital evaluation mechanisms: every new measure in the holiday countries, every decision by the German federal states, the German government and the EU as well as every new assessment by relevant organisations and institutes - and of course every announcement and every press conference."

Melanie Gerhardt, Head of Crisis Management at DER Travel and Tourism one: And when travelling became possible again, the work wasn't done for you and your team.

Melanie Gerhardt: "Yes! It was an up and down. The 'ramp-up' of the holiday regions was a real challenge again and again in 2020 and 2021. There were constantly new guidelines, evaluations and assessments from politicians and the authorities that had to be taken into account and communicated. The balancing act had to be managed - and the desire to travel had to be reawakened again and again. One major problem was that the tourism industry was initially not digitally equipped to automatically process the new requirements - especially the entry regulations, some of which changed daily. Until the first IT companies were ready in September 2021, our specialist departments had to spend a lot of time providing individual information."

one: How important was communication with guests during these times?

Melanie Gerhardt: "More important than ever. In times of major crises, talk is golden. We had to keep every guest who had questions informed for weeks and months. In a huge effort by everyone involved, dozens of 'Take Care Flyers' and podcast series were produced in quick succession during this time, providing information about the restart measures and fundamental aspects of the pandemic. These flyers were produced virtually on an assembly line - and sometimes overnight - as well as a wealth of individualised guest and sales information, including live webinars from the destinations."

one: Looking ahead to the coming travel year, are situations like the chaos you have just experienced at airports a thing of the past?

Melanie Gerhardt: "I'm very confident. I think a lot has been learnt from the summer disaster. At Cologne and Düsseldorf airports, for example, a second security service provider has now been commissioned. Enough staff have now been added to the shifts and there are fewer absences due to illness.

The service providers and airports are already preparing for a possible autumn/winter corona wave with additional staff. The interaction between airports and airlines has also improved: many airlines have thinned out their flight schedules because this is the only way they can offer orderly flight operations and travel reliability. Counter opening hours have been extended and waiting times have almost returned to normal.

Sophisticated concepts have been developed for the coming year; improved digital processes are being established for lost baggage reports and the delivery process in general is also being improved. The airports have been working on extensive personnel recruitment measures for several weeks.

A real step forward: in the coming year, many airports will be using computerised tomography equipment. Passengers will then no longer have to remove liquids and computers from their hand luggage. This will save a lot of time. This new technology has had EU approval for some time now and some airports have already put the new scanners into operation this summer."