Still, having the scenarios in hand gave the tourism authorities a certain sense of comfort that they were more in control, and when the war did break out, there was no sense of panic but rather a cool-headed responsive- ness that prevalled. Ajoint action group was established, and this team successfully coordinated the response of Scottish tourism to what was going on, particularly with regard to getting the communication right with the public and other industry players. The focus was on providing useful information rather than passing on one message after another of doom and gloom the kind of communication that was starting to appear everywhere. At the same time, they also set up a process to monitor booking patterns and consumer and business confidence, so they would have their finger on the pulse of any changes that would affect the sector