International SOS and Control
Risks released their 2018 Travel Risk Map, on which countries are assigned
colors based on medical risk and given icons based on security risk to
travelers.
In an update to last year's
risk ratings, Eastern European countries like Poland, Hungary and Croatia saw a
decrease in their medical risk ratings due to improved standards; some Caribbean
countries saw an increase in medical risk due to recent hurricane damage.
The new map coincides with
the release of International SOS and Ipsos Mori's Global Business Resilience
Trends Watch 2018 survey of 667 business decision makers across 69 countries
who manage or influence their organizations' travel and risk mitigation
policies.
As the biggest reasons
organizations modified travel plans in 2017, 58 percent of respondents cited security
threats, followed by 43 percent naming natural disasters and 42 percent for country
risk ratings. In the Americas, natural disasters came in first, followed by
security threats.
Thirty-nine percent of employers
have responded to travel risk by introducing pre-trip and on-trip advisory emails,
while 37 percent have implemented travel risk-based approval processes.
One-third have implemented travel safety training and security training, 32
percent now provide annual health check-ups and 31 percent updated their travel
risk policies.
Perception of the Travel Risk Environment
Compared to last year, fewer respondents
believed that traveler risk is on the rise, yet the majority still did; 63
percent perceived an increase in 2017, compared with 72 percent in 2016. Fifty-two
percent expect travel risk to increase in 2018. Business decision makers in the
Americas and Australasia, however, proved outliers. Seventy-eight percent and
72 percent, respectively, perceived travel risks to have increased. Moreover, 63
percent in the Americas expect travel risks to increase in 2018.
According to 53 percent of
business decision makers, the five most common challenges to protecting business
travelers include educating employees about travel risks. Forty-four percent cited
communication during a crisis, and similarly, 44 percent mentioned confirming
employees have read pre-travel information.
"The immediate obvious
risks, such as the recent hurricanes and unforeseeable security incidents, will
see organizations scrutinized in terms of preventative measures and
recovery," said ISOS security expert Rob Walker. Yet the survey showed
that less obvious, but perhaps more common, risks remain unaddressed: Only 14
of organizations have updated their travel policies to include
diversity-related issues, and only 10 percent have introduced traveler well-being
policies. According to Dr. Doug Quarry, group medical director of health
intelligence and medical director of information and analysis for ISOS, "Ninety-percent
are seemingly ignoring the impact a well-being policy could have on their
traveling workforce."