GUEST BLOG: SHOULD BUSINESS TRAVEL MANAGERS TAKE “PERMANXIETY” SERIOUSLY?

“Permanxiety” is the latest buzzword in the global travel sector. It describes the near-constant state of anxiety felt by travellers; about everything from terrorism to racial tension, Trumpism to technology, and culture wars to climate change. And, according to global travel intelligence platform Skift (who coined the term) there’s a burgeoning belief that it could soon become the world’s new shared social experience.

Traveller anxiety: the new normal?

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) more than half of business travellers feel that, nowadays, any destination could be high-risk, almost half are worried about terrorist attacks abroad, and over 20% classify North American and Western European countries as only “somewhat safe”.

Meanwhile, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives reports that a third of travel managers are seeing a rise in enquiries about business traveller safety.

Despite these worries, the global travel industry is booming: the GBTA anticipates a rise of more than 6% in corporate travel spend this year and the World Tourism Organisation predicts that, by 2030, five million people will be crossing international borders for leisure, business or other purposes - every single day.

In short, travellers are travelling more. But they are also worrying more about their travels.

Managing worries

Business travel risk management isn’t just about planning for emergencies, it’s also about reducing anxiety, or even 'permanxiety', for travellers. It’s about identifying and mitigating risks associated with every stage of a trip overseas, and helping travellers feel informed about, and supported during, real-time threats.

From pre-travel reports, training and intelligence gathering, to in-country travel tracking and real-time risk alerts, there’s no end of risk management products available to help prepare, inform and locate travellers overseas, and to reduce anxiety.

It’s all about providing access to these products in the most efficient way.  

Meeting expectations

In a recent GBTA survey, 44% of business travellers said they expected their employers to use tools like GPS to locate them in an emergency overseas. And at least two-thirds would expect their company to proactively contact them within two hours of an adverse event abroad.

There is an increasing hunger in the corporate travel sector for joined-up risk mitigation products that provide services like these, in the context of comprehensive risk management programmes; tailored to support travelling employees and meet duty of care obligations. All accessible in one place.

Employers should be able to harness integrated technology that enables them to anticipate employees’ medical and security threats abroad; to know exactly where employees are in relation to threats; and to counteract the dangers. They should be able to prepare staff for every eventuality, giving them access to one-source medical and security advice and emergency assistance, whenever they need it. And they should be able to reduce the anxieties and risks of not having these measures in place.

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate assistance services at CEGA, a Charles Taylor Company and provider of global assistance, travel risk and claims management services.

CEGA and Solace Global Risk are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service INtrinsic at the Business Travel Show on February 20^th and 21^st 2019, Stand B340.  Travel bookers, buyers and managers can register for a free pass here: https://www.businesstravelshow.com/register

www.cegagroup.com       www.solaceglobal.com

GUEST BLOG: What if this was one of your employees?

What if an employee had been wounded in a far-flung corner of the world? What if he needed urgent medical care, but the local hospital was at bursting point and refusing to admit patients?  What if it was difficult to reach the nearest city or airport because the roads were fraught with danger?  Could he bank on his employer to come up with a solution that could just save his life?

The risks

Let’s say this employee was stranded in the middle of a civil war and his injuries were serious. The government had been overthrown, law and order had broken down and there were guns on the streets. Public services were in tatters and it was going to be hard to find him in the chaos.  His case would call for simultaneous security and medical help.

His employer’s security and medical assistance providers may be lined up, but they may not have worked with each other before. Nor may they have contingency plans in place for a combined security and medical evacuation. Without a joined-up response, the injured man could be deprived of protection at the most crucial part of his journey. Medical escorts may not be ready to receive him from their security counterparts. And his evacuation could be delayed. His health could suffer and costs could rise as a result.

Could these fragmented providers work together, first to find the man and then to get him to a good hospital, in the small window of opportunity available?

The “golden hour”

We call the hour after an emergency like this “the golden hour’. Leave a crisis much longer and it may be too late to rectify. But in this case, there would be a lot to do. The real-time security situation on the ground would need to be assessed, medical escorts briefed and secure transport organised to get the man into the best hospital to meet his needs.  A successful outcome would hang on clear communication and a rapid response.

An ideal world

In an ideal world, this employee’s travel risk management programme would include pre-travel training -  so he’d know how to respond to the emergency. He’d know how to minimise exposure to further risk, and how to access combined security and medical assistance via his mobile device. Meanwhile, his travel tracking app would tell his assistance provider exactly where to find him.

The integrated security and medical assistance team would be monitoring the situation in real-time, simultaneously identifying border crossing points, flight options and landing zones and preparing secure transport, medical facilities and emergency medical escorts -  all to slot into place seamlessly.

It wouldn’t be long before the man was in an armoured car, with armed escorts at his side, heading for the emergency medics - ready and waiting to take him to a trusted hospital, probably by air and possibly in a neighbouring country. He would have a bed booked, a surgeon on standby and a full medical handover.  Communication between all parties would have been constant. And the patient would soon be on the road to recovery.

But it could have been a very different story if the medical and security assistance chain had been fragmented.

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate services at global assistance providers CEGA.

CEGA and security experts Solace Global are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service, INtrinsic, at the Business Travel Show, stand B254. Register for your free ticket now at http://bit.ly/2qYu9GF.

GUEST BLOG: Traditional travel risk management doesn’t cut it for corporate travellers

Corporate travel has never been so diverse, travel risks so unpredictable, nor duty of care demands so onerous. Even traditionally safe destinations can’t be considered hazard-free. And in this sort of climate, blanket travel risk management just doesn’t cut it.

Business travellers need to know what they're up against
What if political instability is brewing? Anti-immigrant violence is rife?  Disease is rampant? Or cultural differences are likely to cause offence?

Employers want to know exactly what sort of risks their travelling employees may be exposed to before they send them overseas - even if they’re travelling to countries that aren't normally considered dangerous. And they won’t fulfil their duty of care obligations if they don’t identify and mitigate these risks.

They want to know about everything from where (and how good) local hospitals are -  to how evacuations will get off the ground if there’s a civil war. They want onsite medical and security risk assessments. And they want their employees to be trained to deal with, and even avoid, emergencies - with minimum disruption to their busy schedules. They also need to know if employees or their families have existing medical conditions that may need attention abroad.

Above all, employers want to protect their critical assets - their people.

Employers want to know where their people are
What if there’s been a terrorist attack in a European capital and employees can’t be traced in its aftermath? When the Paris atrocities struck, many employers struggled to find staff who were in the area, to confirm they were safe - or to find out if they were injured and needed help. Some didn't even know which country their people were in.

Mobile personnel tracking could have put an end to their uncertainty. It could have identified employees’ locations in relation to attacks, sent out alerts to defer or change journeys until risks were reduced, and issued warnings about real-time changes to both health and security threats.

They want to know how quickly they can get help in an emergency
How would an employee get medical care if local hospitals had been hit hard by a natural disaster, terrorist attack or epidemic and were turning away patients? What if roads were blocked by forest fires or anti-government protesters? Or if security escorts were needed to get an individual to a doctor?

Businesses don't just need to plan in advance for employees' potential hospital admissions, doctors' appointments or evacuations, they also need to be ready for more extreme emergencies, when local resources may not be available or extra support may be needed.

And they want travel risk management to cover every eventualityThere’s more demand than ever for flexible travel risk management solutions that encompass everything from pre-travel training and in-situ awareness, to mobile technology that helps prepare, inform and locate travellers. But there's little appetite for separate medical and security risk management and assistance products.  Businesses don’t want to battle the complexities of multiple suppliers – they want everything in the same place.

Emergencies overseas can’t always be prevented. But putting medical and security assistance hand-in-hand with travel risk management can give employers the control they need to minimise the dangers. 

This post was written by Chris Knight, head of corporate services at global assistance providers CEGA.

CEGA and security experts Solace Global are exhibiting their one-source medical and security assistance service, INtrinsic, at the Business Travel Show, stand B254. Register for your free ticket now at http://bit.ly/2qYu9GF.