What a terrible mess SARS got us all in. The last two months or so felt so long, and so lonely, as Asia got isolated. What SARS did was in effect quarantine business travel, especially to, and from, SARS-affected areas. It wreaked havoc on business growth, thereby crippling further corporate travel.

Are we not glad SARS is now under control in Singapore, Hong Kong and China? Oh, for the chance to say good riddance once and for all to it! Hopefully, science will help us to do that sooner than later.

In the meantime, we can take some comfort that the world recognises the danger of SARS and continues to be on guard against it.

SARS, too, has forced corporate travel managers in Asia to be more crisis management-able. It was the defining crisis - just as 9-11 was to corporate travel managers in the US - that drove home the need for planners to have a crisis management plan. That plan should be all-encompassing. It should be able to safeguard lives and allow business to function as normally and effectively as possible.

Global travel management companies such as TQ3 have rolled out such a plan to help its partners cope with crises (see page 2). Technology suppliers such as Amadeus have tools that allow travel management companies to carry on functioning even if their physical offices are "no go" zones (see page 11). Others, such as OAG and ABACUS International, have launched real-time tools, namely the OAGflights.com and relaunched TravelSmart-Asia (see pages 2 and 11) respectively, that keep planners up-to-date with information they can use.

SARS has made science and technology a real friend for us.

With science and technology, we can hopefully boot SARS out for good, control it, rather than let it control us.

Raini Hamdi
Editor