Managing corporate travel risks

Managing risks for business travel is more difficult than that of leisure travel as the destinations are usually dictated by the purpose of travel. Selecting alternate destinations not being an option, only itineraries can be altered to lower risks, while destination risks must be mitigated within the constraints imposed by the purpose of the trip.

Since the tragic events of Paris and Brussels in particular, there are has been a sharp increase of blogs, promotional emails and social media messages about the risks of business travel. However, this is mostly self-serving hype from stakeholders in risk and travel management. While these issues do need to be considered responsibly, the risks for business travelers have not increased anymore than that of leisure travelers in recent years. It could actually be argued that it is the leisure travelers who are at greater risks today.

If we consider the major terrorist attacks in Europe in 2015 and 2016, none of them specifically targeted business travelers. It was mostly local people and tourists (Bataclan, Paris, November 2015) who were most exposed or travelers indiscriminately (Brussels airport, March 2016). In the case of the airport bombing, as it occurred in the general check-in area, there was most likely a far greater proportion of leisure travelers than business travelers, as business travelers typically spend less time in the check-in area and many can go directly to airline lounges for check-in. Similarly, a shopping center, mostly under the watch of security guards, is an easier target than a convention center where a purpose or a badge are needed to enter and is usually protected by police. Here again, the business traveler is less exposed than local and tourist shoppers.

Recognizing that business travel is inherently no more dangerous than leisure travel, possibly even less so, does not mean the risks should ignored. There is one important difference between an employee travelling for business and the same person travelling for their own leisure: businesses have a responsibility of care for their employees and guests that does not exist in personal travel. That difference in itself is the reason global corporations take great precautions and often contract with specialized service providers to insure the reasonable safety and security of the people under their responsibility.

Mitigating risks at destinations

Being that alternative destinations are rarely an option for business travel, mitigating risks and exposure at the desired destination is unavoidable. While high risk destinations are well covered with sound advice provided by both the travel industry and government issued travel advisories, advice for travel to reasonably safe destinations is typically limited to generic and rather obvious suggestions covering general safety. Clearly, a low risk location does not warrant the costs and complications of security measures required for that of a high risk location.

However, some simple measures can be implemented to enable crisis response and management of an unforeseen event that could potentially endanger the members of a travelling party. First and foremost is information and communication. Someone who speaks the local language, either on location or remotely, should be monitoring local news to learn of unforeseen events as soon as possible and convey that information and relevant advice directly to each member of the travelling party. As most business travelers carry a smartphone these days, It is quite easy and economical to establish a communication network within a travel group using popular chat apps. The nominal cost of this measure is easily justified by the benefits of avoiding or managing even mundane incidents, like local demonstrations disrupting traffic, taxi strike, weather warning, someone getting lost from the group, etc. Most global corporations contract with travel security firms such as International SOS to provide such services. Other companies may have informal arrangements, either in-house or through their travel provider to cover at least some aspects of travel risk management. The ability to communicate instantly and individually with every members of the travelling party in the event of a serious emergency is paramount to mitigate the risks they may be facing at that time.

While admittedly limited to provide advice only in the aftermath of violent events spanning a very short time as in the Brussels bombing in March 2016, the Nice truck attack in July 2016 or the Christmas market truck attack of Berlin in December 2016, such communication ability was most important during the Paris terrorist attack of November 2015 as immediate danger in several neighborhoods extended into several hours. While the local people might understand what is happening and know where to be safe, being a visitor not understanding the local language could lead to a dangerous situation without a trusted communication for guidance.

In certain regions of the world, it is a wise to avoid displaying signs or indication of origin, or possibly the corporate identity, of the travelers to lessen risks of aggressive behavior that could develop into spontaneous and random incidents toward the visitors. While this has been common advice for decades for travel to a few countries, recent political polarization in Europe and US now makes it applicable in regions that, in the past, would not have been any cause for concern.

About “Blood on the Beach”

Political acts of violence in tourist destinations, such as the attacks in Paris, Ankara and Sousse, have a disastrous and long-lasting effect on local people and businesses, to say nothing of the tourists themselves. In these days of instant communication, the effect is all the more dramatic and far reaching, as even reputedly safe destinations are under threat.
Based on a PhD research on managing the impact of political crises on tourism, this book offers a simplified and practical application of the management framework developed in the thesis. The book includes enlightening extracts from in-depth interviews with a wide range of tourism professionals and reveals a fascinating picture of the true impact of political crises and terrorism on the tourism industry and the tourists. Blood on the Beach will be of great value to all those involved in the tourism industry around the world.

"Blood on the Beach" - Your tourism crisis handbook

If you are in tourism, crises from external events are increasingly affecting your business. The connected world that greatly extends your market reach today also brought to your door step the effects of remote crises which only a generation ago had a lesser impact across continents between tourist destinations and originating markets.

Unlike natural disasters, such as earthquakes or tsunami, virtually all other crises have social or political roots, however remote the connection may seem to be. For example, floods are rarely a purely natural event. More often than not, the cause may be land mismanagement like deforestation, or ineffective flood control compromised by economic or political considerations.

Political crises unfolding in or near tourist destinations can have a devastating effect, far beyond the human tragedy that is often the immediate result. The repercussions of these events affect many people and organisations, from the innocent holidaymaker to local political bodies and tourism organisations. They may ruin industries, cities, even countries. So learning to manage them and their after-effects is vital. While there are several studies of tourism crises caused by terrorism and natural disasters, few in-depth studies have explored the impact on the tourism industry of political crises in general.

“Blood on the Beach” is a how-to handbook to apply crisis management to political crises and provides a framework for political crisis responses and practical solutions for the tourism industry.

The title of the book reflects the impact of political crises upon tourism as it happened after the terrorist attack on the beach of Sousse, Tunisia in 2015, because of its significance for the tourism industry at large: it was more than a destination being affected, it was the product itself - the beach – that became affected. Then the Brussels lockdown following the November 2015 terror attack in Paris transformed a destination crisis event into a product crisis now affecting all major cities. When, a few days later, the US State Department issued a worldwide travel alert, tourism stakeholders face the broadest threat to the industry since the last world war as its two key products, beaches and major cities, became affected globally by current events.

A classification model

The framework of political crisis responses that is the foundation of this handbook is built from the a classification model of political crisis situations that can usually be assessed in terms of the degree of violence involved and their duration, as expressed in this figure.

The first dimension is the degree of violence, which ranges from non-violent to violent. The second dimension is the duration of the crisis, which ranges from ephemeral to enduring, where ephemeral may span from a few hours to a few days and enduring from several days to months or even years. From these two dimensions, political crises can then be divided into four main types: (1) violent enduring crises, (2) violent ephemeral crises, (3) non-violent enduring crises, and (4) nonviolent ephemeral crises.

About “Blood on the Beach”

Political acts of violence in tourist destinations, such as the attacks in Paris, Ankara and Sousse, have a disastrous and long-lasting effect on local people and businesses, to say nothing of the tourists themselves. In these days of instant communication, the effect is all the more dramatic and far reaching, as even reputedly safe destinations are under threat.
Based on a PhD research on managing the impact of political crises on tourism, this book offers a simplified and practical application of the management framework developed in the thesis. The book includes enlightening extracts from in-depth interviews with a wide range of tourism professionals and reveals a fascinating picture of the true impact of political crises and terrorism on the tourism industry and the tourists. Blood on the Beach will be of great value to all those involved in the tourism industry around the world.

Why is tourism increasingly affected by political crises?

In the span of a mere generation, tourism has become a significant industry for many areas that were previously the destination of choice for only adventure tourists or backpackers. Local and international entrepreneurs and organizations have since seized upon the changing tourist landscape to build infrastructure that includes hotel and restaurant chains, transportation services, amenities and attractions. Directly employing hundreds if not thousands locally, many more are employed in the far-extending supply chain. Simultaneously, tourism investments have grown in the generating markets to match these opportunities whether through airliner purchases or extensive marketing.

See World Tourism Organization: Table: International Tourist Arrivals 1950-2005

http://www.ontit.it/opencms/export/sites/default/ont/it/documenti/archivio/files/ONT_2006-01-01_01014.pdf

Graph: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch7en/appl7en/internationaltourists.html

In the span of this same generation, the world has witnessed traditional media and telecommunications evolve into a global medium where people feed, relay and consume news nearly instantaneously. Whereas traditional media reported, summarized and editorialized to an unknowing audience, the “news” element is already in the public knowledge thanks to social media and instant telecommunications today. Details and in-depth reporting is often too late to influence the already formed opinions drawn from 140 character tweets and smartphone pictures posted on Instagram during the course of a crisis.

See an interesting study by the Pew Research Center: What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News

http://stateofthemedia.org/2012/mobile-devices-and-news-consumption-some-good-signs-for-journalism/what-facebook-and-twitter-mean-for-news/

The greatest damage to a destination occurs immediately… as the worldwide audience is watching it unfold live. While the effects may be felt days or weeks later, the damage has already been done. Crisis management serves as a crucial emergency centre during these times, but a plan must be in place first in order to be effective when and if needed. In this way, crisis management acts similar to an insurance policy for events that hopefully will never take place. Large companies including most airlines have dedicated crisis management teams; however, it is neither practical nor cost-effective for smaller organisations to maintain staff specifically for the task.

Fortunately, the most important element of any crisis management strategy is… communication, which a stakeholder of any size can leverage. While instant communications like tweets and Instagram pictures so quickly shape public opinion as crises develop, the same avenues of communication are also the most effective means for tourism stakeholders to enter the conversation and manage the effects as soon as possible.

In practical terms… all stakeholders must have the following: a detailed crisis contingency plan, a resource guide for employees, and the ability to delegate decision-making and communications to those best suited to respond during a crisis event.

Odds are slim that the person leading a crisis management effort will be easily accessible at the most critical of times, therefore the chosen resource guide book for employees should be both effective and adaptive in ensuring that best practices prevail. The guide should offer concise and adaptable instructions so that no employee is caught desperately searching a lengthy index to find a simple answer. As American English is the most widely understood language by the global audience, consider using it as the language of choice.

The next step is to select, build and train a crisis team. Keep in mind that most experienced and senior staff may not be on site, or they may remain unreachable far into an unfolding crisis. Therefore, the best candidates for a local team should be those already adept at utilizing social media. Regardless of their work experience or placement, they should be motivated team players who can be trusted with important responsibilities. Of course, they should be able to communicate in basic English; additional they will require some training in crisis management to ensure that order, not mayhem, prevails.

Instead of an arduously written, lengthy, post-event press release… that is often viewed skeptically, build a crisis response plan which serves as a foundation to mitigate negative effects and build credibility in this age of powerful and immediately information. Digestible and accurate communications from coordinated sources distributed throughout the course of a crisis are the key to successfully mitigating their consequences.

Vorawan & Associates is a consultancy particularly well learned on the subject of political crisis management for the tourism industry. Do not hesitate to contact us with your questions or inquiries.

Welcome to my new endeavor!

A new window of opportunities 

After four gruelling years of researching and writing my doctoral dissertation, I did it! The proof lay before me as I glance at the nicely bound green book with gold lettering that reads, Development of a Framework of Political Crisis Responses for the Tourism Industry. While it’s an attractive keepsake to be sure, the best reward of this intensive process still awaits. It is my intent that this new blog bridges the gap between the academic theory of travel and tourism and my real-world experiences in the field.

Who we are – Vorawan & Associates Ltd. was founded by me in the aftermath of my doctoral degree. It seemed only natural to create a consultancy which, like my own background, draws upon the unique knowledge and resources of both the academic and business worlds to better serve clients. V&A Ltd. is based in London and offers tourism crisis management consulting services to a range of private organizations, NGOs and government agencies. Additionally, we participate in conferences and publish industry papers and books on the subject.

While I leverage my knowledge of the effects of political crises on tourism, it is the “associates” element of this consultancy that is crucial to developing a unique, valued and credible reputation by serving clients who face increasingly complex issues. These associates will continuously evolve to include academics and industry executives alike who possess broad knowledge and experience that can be applied to tourism, politics and crisis management.

What to expect - Expect to find V&A Ltd.’s published papers, conference schedules and associates’ biographies on our new website, Vorawan.com. This blog will offer a mix of trim academically-oriented short papers and current event analysis alongside trade-oriented briefs devoted to application models and practical suggestions. The blog, like the consultancy itself and my own background, reflects the integral connection between theory and practice to best serve our clients and readers alike.

With that, welcome once again to this new endeavour!