Travel Daily Media (TDM): During the Middle East crisis, how did disinformation and AI-generated fake news complicate decision-making for travel management companies?
Suzanne Sangiovese (SS): As the conflict escalated, travel management companies (TMCs) faced immediate and visible operational pressure. However, a less visible yet equally significant challenge was the information environment surrounding the crisis. The greatest complication for TMCs wasn't merely identifying misleading content; rather, it was the effect that misinformation had on the speed of decision-making. During the crisis, operational conditions changed rapidly due to airspace closures, rerouting, and cancellations. At the same time, social media was inundated with AI-generated images, recycled footage, and unverified claims.
This situation exemplifies how a crisis can create a challenging operational environment, as travel decisions often cannot wait for complete certainty. TMCs still need to advise clients, assess traveller exposure, and make routing decisions in real time. The challenge is that misinformation hinders the verification process precisely when organisations need to act swiftly.
This is an issue that the industry will increasingly face. In high-pressure situations, access to verified information along with sufficient context and analysis is crucial for making confident decisions.
TDM: Why is verified travel risk intelligence becoming as important as operational response in fulfilling duty of care responsibilities today?
(SS): The industry once faced a scarcity of information; now it grapples with information overload. During major events, organisations can access vast data but often struggle to quickly verify what is relevant, accurate, and operationally useful to support decision-making. While operational responses remain essential, they are reactive. Verified travel risk intelligence enables organisations to make well-informed decisions before issues escalate, as events unfold and immediately afterwards.
During crises, TMCs have worked tirelessly, managing call volumes significantly above normal, rerouting passengers, and maintaining client communication around the clock. This effort is commendable. However, relying on unreliable intelligence for operational strength can be risky, as decisions are made rapidly based on incomplete or inaccurate information. Today, the effectiveness of operational response increasingly depends on the quality of the intelligence it relies on.
TDM: In a fast-moving crisis, how can TMCs distinguish between authentic advisories and convincing fake information before making routing or safety decisions?
(SS): Verification processes cannot be improvised once a disruption begins. When clients require answers and operational teams are under pressure, there is no time to evaluate the credibility of sources from scratch. Trusted sources, escalation pathways, and verification workflows must be established before a crisis starts and integrated into operational processes.
The main challenge organisations face is how to quickly validate and corroborate information to take appropriate action. Those who effectively navigate the early hours of a crisis have already committed to reliable sources before the crisis hits, such as government advisories, credible human-verified intelligence providers, and direct communications from carriers.
An effective operational verification process is crucial in these situations. For instance, if an airspace closure occurs, best practice is to validate that information against communications from airlines and verified intelligence sources before making rerouting decisions.
The same principle applies to security incidents that circulate on social media. The operations team should refrain from acting on unverified reports until they can be corroborated through trusted channels. This ensures that organisations are making decisions based on verified information and can confidently support their actions in critical situations.
Ultimately, the organisations that perform best during crises are those that have already defined trusted sources, established escalation workflows, and set verification thresholds before disruptions occur.
TDM: What were some of the biggest lessons the travel industry learned from the first 72 hours of the conflict, particularly around information reliability?
(SS): One of the key lessons from the first 72 hours was that many crisis management models were designed for a slower information environment than what the industry currently faces. Many organisations had quietly assumed that their existing crisis playbook would suffice; however, the operational conditions and information flows were evolving much more rapidly than traditional response models could accommodate.
Today, travel risk management operates in real-time. Situations can change while travel managers are still reviewing the initial reports. For instance, airspaces can close across a region with little notice. In this environment, many organisations end up making decisions based on the fastest information available rather than the most reliable.
Misinformation is just one aspect of the challenge. A broader lesson is that decision-making timelines have fundamentally compressed. Crisis operating models must now support verification, intelligence gathering, and operational response simultaneously, rather than as separate sequential steps.
The organisations that performed best during the crisis were those that could filter out noise, efficiently validate developments, and translate complex situations into clear guidance for travellers and clients.
TDM: As AI-driven misinformation becomes more sophisticated, how should TMCs rethink their crisis preparedness and intelligence infrastructure?
(SS): The industry has made significant progress in transitioning from static risk frameworks to real-time intelligence. However, the operating environment is evolving once again. Simply having access to information is no longer sufficient. As AI-generated misinformation becomes more sophisticated, the true differentiator is now the ability to validate information, assess its credibility, and quickly translate developments into reliable operational guidance.
Travel Management Companies (TMCs) should consider intelligence sourcing as a vital operational competency rather than just a secondary support function. It is essential to establish verification processes, trusted source frameworks, and escalation workflows before crises arise. These processes should be integrated directly into the systems that teams use daily, including booking platforms, traveller tracking tools, and communication workflows.
The industry is moving beyond a sole focus on speed. The real differentiator now lies in ensuring that the intelligence provided is contextualised and operationally actionable during rapidly evolving situations.
TDM: Why should duty of care and trusted intelligence systems be treated as a business-critical investment rather than a reactive measure during emergencies?
(SS): The duty of care and trusted intelligence systems should no longer be regarded as just reactive tools for crisis management. They are increasingly becoming essential components of an organization’s core operational resilience infrastructure.
Disruptions are occurring more frequently, becoming more interconnected, and generating more information than ever before. During major events, organizations are expected to make rapid decisions regarding traveler safety, operational continuity, and communication, often while the situation is still developing. People in a crisis do not need more information; they need the right information at the right time.
The industry is starting to recognize that duty of care is not only measured by how organizations respond after travelers are affected. It is also evaluated based on preparedness: the effectiveness of their intelligence processes, the speed of their communication, and their ability to provide clear guidance before uncertainty escalates into disruption. Duty of care encompasses more than just traveler safety; it also impacts operational resilience, employee trust, and reputational risk.
Ultimately, trusted intelligence systems are becoming critical to business operations because they support more than just crisis response. They foster continuity, enhance traveler confidence, and enable informed decision-making throughout the travel program during uncertain times. In today’s landscape, where crises are no longer rare events, this capability must be established before a crisis arises, rather than being developed in the midst of one.
