Safety concerns on the rise among business travellers

Travel safety is a growing concern among business travellers and travel managers, a global survey has highlighted.

The March poll, commissioned by American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), found 56% of corporate buyers noticed a rise in the number of business travellers reporting heightened personal safety concerns in the first three months of the year.

A quarter said they had seen increased requests for security training in the past six months.

In addition, 54% said travellers have expressed growing worry about travelling to the US as changes to visa requirements and immigration policies loom.

"The pace of change and the amount of anxiety in the corporate travel industry has accelerated tremendously over the past three to six months, and it will be critical for companies to stay ahead of the curve if their employees are to remain productive and happy on the road," says Greeley Koch, executive director of ACTE, which was involved in the research.

"Luckily, travel technologies are evolving just as fast – if not faster – and offering executives and planners new tools to address happiness, safety and security."

In response to recent challenges, 87% of buyers report plans to improve safety training, with one third having introduced these changes already, 14% planning to roll out new programmes over the next one to two years, and 40% discussing changes internally.

"The modern business traveller is more vocal than ever. They are actively advocating for their own experience, with a clear focus on arming themselves with safety and security information while they are travelling for business," says Evan Konwiser, vice president of Digital Traveler with GBT.

"Checking in with the modern business traveller six months later, we are seeing that the behaviours revealed in the 2016 research are becoming trends that the industry must consider when evaluating their existing policies and programmes."

The poll also highlighted concerns about data theft while travelling, with 31% of buyers saying they’ve seen an increase in traveller enquiries about data security over the past three months.

But GBT said few companies seem to have coherent policies in place to address these concerns.

The survey found 58% say employees are permitted to use their personal devices for business communication, 64% say travellers may access public WiFi with their business devices, and 47% allow the use of non-purged laptops and devices while on the road.

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