For quite some time now organisations have been considering the destination as the main trigger when considering travel risk management. What I mean by this is that for destinations that are considered “high-risk”, many organisations have a security check in place and (hopefully)some sort of procedures….(not all…).
Let’s unpack this a bit. Firstly, how do we decide if a country is high-risk or not? Most companies rely on a combination of their insurance companies black-list and their own countries government advice (note – there isn’t a global list of high-risk countries that you can download…) – why? Because it all depends on where you live, who you are and what your perception of high-risk is.
Sitting in the UK and looking out, we consider areas of conflict or civil unrest as high-risk and our FCDO updates it’s guidelines regularly. In the instance of environmental issues, such as fires, earthquakes, volcanoes advice will be changed. Travel is rarely banned to an entire country, instead pointing out which regions to avoid. British Columbia have launched a non-essential travel ban whilst they continue to deal with the wild-fires that have ravished the countryside and wild-life. Whilst travel to Greece has not been banned, the UK government has changed its advice and urged people to seek advice before travelling to the areas concerned.
And here, lies the point. The two countries that I have mentioned above, are not considered “high-risk” countries. Greece relies heavily on tourism during the summer months, meaning having restrictions placed on it would further damage the economy. Canada is open for business, despite great areas of it being on fire since April, its smoke being breathed in by the people in NYC. Decisions to invoke a travel ban are not taken lightly and are economical and political too.
They are also simply offering advice. The final decision is left to the individual or organisation; who can also make the decision to travel with or without insurance. When global travel bans were announced during the covid pandemic the question was raised of what “essential” or “non-essential” travel is….another conundrum. As it’s ultimately left to the organisation or the individual to decide what constitutes “essential”. I hope you are already following as to why this isn’t ideal.
This is exactly where risk assessments come in. Whether you are traveling for personal reasons, or as part of a business – a risk assessment is the perfect way to consider the trip, (in full) prior to booking anything. Where are you planning to go?, What are you planning to do? Who are you?, What are your personal needs and requirements?, Are you putting yourself at unnecessary risk or does your personal life put you at a higher-risk in certain scenarios?
Now, if it is a personal trip and you have a desire to go, perhaps you’ll have less interest in assessing potential hazards (after all it sounds like a bit of a fun-killer) so consider it as less of a risk assessment and more of a trip enabler.
For those of us travelling for business, travel risk assessments should be a standard part of what we do for each and every trip – considering the destination, the person and the activity. We shouldn’t be just doing them for what we have traditionally called “high-risk destinations”, as depending on the activity and the person travelling, “high-risk” has very different meanings.
Your organisation has a responsibility (duty of/to care) for all of it’s people (that includes employees, contractors and guests), and whilst you as the individual has responsibility too, your organisation should be providing you with relevant information for all trips. This is near impossible to do if the first time a trip is known about is either when the booking is made (and sometimes confirmed) or worse still when the invoice is paid (and the traveller has likely returned).
I have heard too many near misses recently, security teams, TMCs and line managers within your company will have potentially received a call from a traveller in need, 80% of the time these countries were not deemed as high-risk….and 100% of the time they didn’t know they were there….its good for me, it keeps me busy with work, as the reality of the near miss is felt by many.
But we can all do better. And be pro-active. But we need to think about the planning bit differently. Change the casual approval chat that happens between line manager and employee into a formal pre-risk approval, call it a travel enabler questionnaire, if it sits better with you – but please, please consider all trips, all people and all activities.
No more – high-risk countries only. Most of the incidents won’t occur in these as lets be honest most of you won’t be travelling to ares of conflict anytime soon.
