With protests in Hong Kong, wildfires in the United States and Australia and continued unrest in Syria, Venezuela and Yemen—to name just a few locations—2019 proved to be another year in which natural and man-made disasters and incidents disrupted business travel throughout the world. Travel risk management firm International SOS in September 2019 conducted an online survey of 1,346 business travel professionals in 214 countries to assess whether and how perceptions of travel risk have changed during the past year. More than half indicated they had to contend in 2019 with higher year-over-year levels of traveler health and security risk, pointing most frequently to security threats and civil unrest as the causes. Significantly more, though, believe that security and geopolitical threats will disrupt business travel in 2020.
Meanwhile, International SOS suggested that corporates often aren’t keeping up with potential risk factors concerning "emerging traveler habits ... and diversification of the workforce" with specific language in travel policies. The firm calls this the "grey zones of risk" that a sound travel policy could cover.
