Intense media reporting on the tsunami tragedy has helped turn the world’s attention and aid to victims, but has also inevitably painted a picture of whole areas wiped out by the killer waves.

“Aftermath” news – disease sets in, water gets contaminated, land mines get exposed – causes worry among leisure and business travellers to make trips to affected areas.

Corporate travel planners will do their travellers a big favour – and will contribute well to the relief effort to tsunami-affected areas – if they make a real effort to define the affected areas and separate real concerns from perceptions and speculations.

They need various channels of information. Fortunately, with the Internet and email, there is no shortage of sources from which they can gain up-to-date, fast and accurate information on the ground. East West Siam, for instance, set up a website, www.ewsiam.com, to provide foreign operators and visitors updates on the operational status of properties in Phuket and the situation on the ground.

The impact on business travel by this disaster is not expected to be huge, as the areas affected are tourist resorts. Still, the crisis demonstrates once again the need for a proper corporate travel policy that will serve as a fair and balanced guide when it is most needed.