A disaster recovery plan sets out procedures for recovering systems after a major disruption. NIST’s definitions cover the response to lost capability and the restoration of critical information systems. The plan is broader than simply having a backup file. Source: NIST: disaster recovery plan

Make the travel workflow visible

List the tasks that must resume, such as retrieving bookings, contacting suppliers and checking outstanding payments. Give each task an owner and an approved fallback route. This makes the plan usable when the person who normally manages the systems is unavailable.

Record where the plan itself can be reached during an outage. Test access from the agreed alternative location, because instructions held only inside the unavailable system would not help the team.

Rehearse a safe scenario

Use fictional bookings in a controlled exercise. Ask the team to identify the latest trusted record, explain what remains uncertain and follow the escalation route. This reveals missing decisions without experimenting on real customer arrangements.

The NCSC recommends knowing how to restore backups and checking that they contain the important data. Include that evidence in the plan, alongside the operational handovers. Source: NCSC: backing up your data

Written and updated by Travelgenix. Sources checked on 16 October 2026. Worked examples and checklists are editorial illustrations and recommendations, not customer results.