With business travel on the increase, it’s more important than ever to exercise duty of care over executives jetting off overseas. Business travel expert John Burke opens your eyes to the potential risks
It’s a fairly standard scenario: you’ve spent the afternoon arranging a trip for your boss to the far east, involving three airlines and five hotels with a dilemma regarding train or car hire. Then later that day, in your own free time, you surf the internet for ideas about a weekend break on the continent, or a summer holiday in the Caribbean.
Whether for business or pleasure, there is so much involved in making travel arrangements, from searching and booking to organising travel and medical insurance, that security is often overlooked. Risks can be reduced, however, by recognising that the world is a dangerous place and that while any travelling brings exhaustion and disorientation, business people are under even more pressure.
There are 56 million trips out of the UK each year, and women now account for almost half of all executive travel. Both sexes are equally vulnerable to accident or crime, ranging from robbery and kidnap to manslaughter and murder. an engineer from Oldham was kidnapped recently in Bangladesh, for instance, and last year another professional in the same field, originally from Scotland, was captured by extremists in Sumatra. They join three British oilmen based in Nigeria, a banker from Wales based in Georgia and a publisher and his wife who were working on the Kenyan border with Somalia when they were snatched.
Women have the added risk of rape, whether they’re travelling alone (Delhi 2012), together with another female (St Lucia 2011), or with a male companion (Rio 2013 and earlier this year in South Africa). Last year, 310 British women were raped overseas, notably in Greece, Cyprus and Turkey; in some Islamic countries the victim may well be jailed for immoral behaviour (Dubai 2013).
Then there has been the continual exposure to terrorism since the Palestinian hijacking of three planes in 1970 ended almost a century of safe travel for civilians. Since 227 air passengers were among nearly 3,000 business people killed on 9/11, there have been 62 attacks on hotels in 20 countries, causing more than 2,000 casualties. That is without counting the 1993 massacre of 229 Indians and 28 visitors in Mumbai, when a dozen European politicians in two hotels emerged unscathed, although a PA was wounded.
The problems were recognised in London two decades ago when Lloyds of London broker Willis Corroon was involved in insuring executives against kidnap and ransom. Realising that the most likely targets were in the areas of energy, finance, engineering and diplomacy, the firm reduced premiums for any organisation that sent male or female staff on a course about personal security. The weekend course covered how to blend into the local scene, spotting surveillance, the importance of travelling with sterile surgical needles and safeguarding valuables and documents. It also encompassed useful tips, including the importance of varying your routine, exercising caution with unfamiliar foods, studying a map of the area where you’re staying in advance of your arrival and having $1 bills in your pocket for taxis and sundries to avoid showing your wallet or purse.
The second attempt at both reducing risk and increasing rescue came in the wake of the Bali bombings in 2002, whose victims included 27 Britons and 88 Australians. Fury at the lack of warning almost brought down the government in Canberra, which is why a group of academics led by Professor Jeff Wilks from Queensland compiled Tourism in Turbulent Times.
Over the course of some 357 pages, this tome examines preparedness and responses at individual, corporate and inter-governmental level regarding the many risks to travellers. This means everything from terrorism and epidemics to natural disasters and hazardous sports. The 26 experts also cover organised crime and personal assaults.
The manual contains a lot of advice worth heeding if you organise business travel. For instance, Dr Annelies Wilder-Smith, a vaccination specialist in Singapore, notes: “Travellers should monitor the websites of the World health organisation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”
When it comes to what can or should be incorporated into travel policy, companies need to think carefully, given that the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act of 2007, even more than the Health and Safety at Work Act of 1974, exposes employers to claims from staff who get in harm’s way. As Bob Powell of Oval Insurance Broking warns, “An organisation’s responsibility for the wellbeing and safety of its employees does not stop at the departure gate. If anything, its obligations under duty of care are heightened.”
James Murphy MP, who was Shadow Defence Secretary in 2011, criticised the piecemeal rescue of some 700 British workers in war-torn Libya, because the government would not join international efforts. That same year, 400,000 westerners were among 30 million people in central Japan threatened with evacuation after the Fukushima disaster.
The tsunami of 2004 killed 8,596 tourists in Thailand; while 30,000 tourists were rescued from Cancun during the 2005 hurricane. Other marine hazards are piracy and shipwreck, such as with the incident of the Costa Concordia in 2012 when 32 drowned, although 12 British passengers escaped. Incidentally, there have been 59 suspicious fatalities on cruises during the past 10 years, not counting the disappearance in 2011 of Rebecca Coriam, a stewardess from Chester who was working on the Disney Wonder in the Pacific.
Despite the lack of inter-governmental planning, various interests are doing what they can for corporate executives on the move, including lone female travellers. The latest trend in hotel-keeping is floors restricted to ladies in such cities as Washington, Singapore and Copenhagen, as well as in Vancouver where the Georgian Court is renowned for its good security, as your room key also operates the hotel lifts.
Some companies now have electronic tracking that software firms such as Concur of Seattle have built into their programmes for travel management and expense accounting. If only for reasons of employer liability, they want to know where Ms Brown or Mr Jones are so that they can pick up a hot trail if one of them does not arrive at a meeting in Boston, or check in to their hotel in Bangkok. The latest figures available, which date back to 2009, show that a total of 148 Britons went missing abroad in that year.
Tracking has also been designed by KDS of Staines, where Oliver Quayle points out: “According to a survey that we recently conducted, a significant percentage of corporate travellers reckon that their employers are not aware of their exact itinerary. Worse, half of all those travelling on business are so unaware of the system-driven policy that they do not book in a way that makes it easy for companies to locate them.”
Both software firms exhibited at the latest Business Travel Show at London’s Earls Court, while a newcomer this year was Water-to-Go, who was demonstrating pocket bottles that will filter 99.9% of anything from polluted water. This is no longer just a concern for backpackers, as the last two years have seen scandals about bottled water in China, Russia, India and Egypt. Even a hotel’s swimming pool becomes dangerous if insanitary water gets into the mouth, according to Tourism in Turbulent Times.
Another exhibitor at the Earls Court trade show highlights a further danger. A locking-bar to go over safes in hotels has just been invented by Martin Dubbey, formerly head of intelligence at the Serious Organised Crime Agency. He explains: “Surveys show that nine out of 10 guests use a room safe, but any kind can be opened by someone else – until Bloxsafe goes over the door.”
Security is not just about passport, camera and valuables, but briefcases and laptops too. Chicago is the top city for losing the latter, according to Absolute Software of Vancouver, while the worst airports for stolen laptops include Atlanta, Miami, Vienna and Manchester. A thief has even snatched one from the airside conveyor belt of security while his accomplice blocked the gate by wearing metal jewellery.
A leaflet issued to American travellers by the FBI and CIA warns that there are criminal gangs and intelligence agents waiting to obtain photograph samples and personal data. Featuring helpful hints about the importance of vigilance, it warns that espionage nowadays is so sophisticated that many countries have the means to hack into data on hand-held devices, so clean them of anything confidential ahead of travelling abroad.
It is high time that training in personal security while away on business was made a priority. Some of the devices mentioned here are easy to demonstrate and even defensive driving can be appreciated on a video. Perhaps the City and industry could be galvanised into action by a body like the British Chambers of Commerce or the Foreign Office, which aided 19,000 Britons overseas last year, many of whom had doubtless ignored updated warnings on its website.
John Burke is a veteran financial journalist and broadcaster, as well as a travel writer who has visited around 80 countries, originally as a tour guide. He contributes regularly to Business Travel News and to City pages
