ACTE Takes Issue W/ Security

<B> ACTE Takes Issue W/ Security</B>

By Amon Cohen

The move of November's ACTE Global conference out of Istanbul has brought home to travel management executives how great an impact security concerns can have on business travelers.

Although the Kosovo conflict is raging near Turkey's borders, causing travel problems in its own right, the Istanbul meeting was canceled because of a different crisis, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said. The PKK Kurdish guerrilla movement has been carrying out terrorist attacks in Istanbul and has warned American and other Western visitors that they are principal targets. Although it stopped short of urging a cessation of travel, the State Department has advised U.S. citizens to maintain a low profile and not gather in large numbers, leaving ACTE with little option but to cancel its Istanbul booking. The global travel management association now is seeking to relocate the conference, and is considering Amsterdam, London, Montreal or Nice as venues.

A combination of growing crime and anti-Western agitation means that the worldwide security situation has deteriorated for business travelers during the past year. "Many countries are experiencing worsening social and economic problems, and foreign travelers are regarded as very easy--and lucrative--pickings," said Martin Stone, head of research for the London-based business risk consultancy Control Risks Group.

Cities where security has worsened in recent months include Cape Town, Karachi, Lima, Mexico City and the once highly safe Indonesian capital of Jakarta, where chronic economic problems have driven previously respectable citizens to participate in criminal activities.

And while fighting in the Balkans might not be the direct reason for moving ACTE's global conference, it has caused the organization this month to issue an advisory to members about travel to countries that might be targeted by street demonstrations or protests. "There was enough warning of a pending military action for companies to get their travelers or foreign representatives out of Yugoslavia," ACTE president Earl Foster said in a statement. "But the resulting PR campaign waged by Serbian nationalists has led to some violent street protests in cities far from the battle."

All this is a timely reminder for travel managers of the importance of having access to good-quality security information, so that their travelers can anticipate and prevent conflict when visiting difficult destinations. That may sound obvious, but travel managers can forget that they are more geographically and culturally astute than many of their colleagues. For example, CRG has on its books a case of an American traveler who breezed into Bogota without any precautions and was duly mugged. The traveler claimed no one in his company had warned him that Colombia was a dangerous place to visit.

The need for information is particularly acute among U.S. business travelers, according to Stone. "Coverage of foreign affairs in the U.S. media is very patchy, to put it mildly," he said. "We tend to get a lot more destination questions from clients there than in Europe."

Indeed, most U.S.-based travel managers have not found the war in Kosovo to be having any kind of impact on their travel operations. Of the several that BTN contacted, none reported a decline in bookings to Europe, or much concern.

Oracle Corp.'s director of corporate travel Valerie Cordell, for example, said she doesn't believe the conflict has slowed down business to London or northern Europe, though she did recently ask the company's executive committee about limiting travel. "As it stands right now, we just let travelers know the current situation and point them to the State Department advisories," she said.

One business travel manager at a Corporate Travel 100 company has been noticing more hits lately to the security icon on the travel department Web site. "The Russians have expressed some opinion that if troops entered, they would get more involved," he said, and "people then would be a lot more concerned."

Allied Signal so far only is responding to State Department risk ratings, but "certainly we continue to rigorously review our security operation," said director of travel and site services Jim Lee.

On the agency side, Maritz Travel, Travel Inc. and Stevens Travel Management all reported that corporate bookings have not decreased, though leisure bookings certainly have.

Whichever side of the Atlantic and however well informed they may be, few travelers have an exact idea of which parts of a given city are safe to visit and which are a risk to life and limb.

Nor, claims Stone, can colleagues at the destination give the full picture. "You can rely on your country manager for information, but they are always much more sanguine than visitors who don't know which areas to avoid and don't have local contacts," he said.

CRG's new City Briefs online information service gives full security details of 200 major business cities worldwide, advising on areas to avoid, outlining local sources of tension and grading each city on its level of risk. There also is beneficial information on other destination issues, such as hotels and restaurants. The service costs $5,000 per year plus another $1,500 for the license to put it on the company intranet.

Intranets have provided a perfect vehicle for travel managers to disseminate advisories and other security information. As one might imagine, Microsoft is among the companies that are providing advice in this way, but Keith Gillett, the company's U.K.-based international travel manager, stressed that written advice can only be a starting point. "If they need further information, we push them through to our security people," he said. "We don't try to do it ourselves."

Microsoft backs up its intranet advice center with a worldwide emergency assistance plan that gives travelers a telephone number to call collect at any time for any sort of mishap that occurs while they are on the road, including crime, car accidents, medical difficulties and lost luggage. American Express, on whose card Microsoft travelers charge nearly 90 percent of the company's travel and entertainment expenditure, also provides assistance to personnel in trouble.

Unilever is another company that provides plentiful information for employees and has clear lines of communication for when things go wrong.

"It comes down to due diligence," said business services manager Ian Hall, who recently was elected chairman of the United Kingdom's Institute of Travel Management. "If we require people to travel as part of their work, we have to support those individuals when they are away from home in any way that is necessary. Our travel department works hand-in-hand with the security and occupational health departments and also with suppliers. Looking after our travelers means that we don't necessarily go to the cheapest suppliers."

Unilever disseminates its security advice within its corporate travel policy, which including information on what to pack, how to look after laptop computers and emergency addresses and contact numbers.

Whether advice is gathered externally or internally, it is vital that a company does make the effort to gather it, said Andrew Solum, partner in London-based travel management consultancy Travel Industry Associates. "Speak to your security department if you have one; if you don't, buy the service," he said. "Pay heed to State Department warnings and take terrorist threats seriously. It is better to overreact than to underreact."

Solum believes it is important to train travelers to keep as low a profile as possible. Strolling into a third-world airport with a Gucci crocodile suitcase, a gold Rolex wristwatch and a Stetson is not to be recommended. However, there are many less obvious safety measures that also should be observed.

Travelers to risky destinations should always dress as informally as possible. Laptops, mobile phones and other expensive equipment should be kept well-hidden when in public view. And men may want to desist from shaving for a day or two for added effect, he said.

Since multinational companies often are targeted, Solum even recommended printing up business cards that either carry no company name or the name of a less well-known subsidiary. Secretaries also need to be educated not to put the company name on faxes they send to their boss nor to make a fuss about the traveler being a big shot when booking the hotel room. Slip-ups of this kind can reveal a potential kidnapping target.