Risk in Travel: Is Your Company Even Considering These?

Risk in Travel: Is Your Company Even Considering These?Are you overlooking travel risks intimately linked not only to today’s polarized social and political climate, but environmental issues such as floods, fires, earthquakes, and other natural disasters as well? Trends show, while travelers frequenting business travel services worldwide are becoming increasingly aware of travel dangers, business owners and managers are living in ignorance of or simply overlooking how close their workers are coming to danger.

Rising Trend

Leading business travel agencies are taking note of an Inofact poll of 7,400 people across Europe. The survey unveiled nearly half (48-percent) of business travelers would decline traveling for work if those travels took them to and locale they considered unsafe based on their perceptions or official government travel advisories. Even more horrifying, 16-percent of Dutch travelers, 19-percent of Italian travelers, and 23-percent of British travelers revealed they were involved in or close to serious incidents while away traveling for work last year. For French travelers, the number was significantly higher, at 35-percent. Overall, 18-percent of travelers were in close proximity to or involved in situations like floods, earthquakes, health epidemics, riots, and terrorist attacks.

Business Blinders

Encountering dangerous social or political scenarios while traveling abroad for work comes with serious ramifications. When there is a flood, health epidemic, or riot, employees may be unable to access critical medications such as those for diabetes, cancers, and severe respiratory issues like asthma. These things put the traveler’s well-being and ultimately their life at serious risk. And employers often fail to realize what role corporate ‘duty of care’ responsibilities play when their employees are involved in travel incidents, completely dismissing them in the worst cases. In Europe as a whole, when travelers were involved in such events, no action was taken by employers in 17-percent of cases. Concerns may have been listened to, but nothing was done. For 6-percent of the whole, and a staggering 21-percent of Brits, their concerns were neither acknowledged or attended.

Are You Overlooking Duty of Care Responsibilities Alongside Today’s Travel Risks?

Employers have a moral and legal responsibility for the health, safety, and security of business travelers beyond common boilerplate of travel expense policy guidelines. Those that wish to stand the test of time understand the ultimate corporate expense management solution ensures the functionality and success of their business over the long-haul. To that end, it is essential to remain aware and attentive to today’s top business travel risks. Are you overlooking…

  • The health and overall wellness of employees, including common diseases like cold and flu up to and including heart attacks and stroke from stress and fatigue?
  • Aircraft collisions, such as the recent Boeing Max 737 incidents overseas?
  • Auto accidents, the single greatest cause of death to healthy U.S. citizens annually?
  • Natural disasters and climate risks such as hurricanes, tsunamis, tornadoes, thunderstorms, fires, and earthquakes?

In today’s uncertain times, you should be relying on corporate travel agencies that ensure the safety of your employees and safeguard the future of your business. Don’t rely on amateurs. Contact GTI Travel today.