Brandon Thompson, Managing Director of consultancy Drum Cussac, suggests eight crucial items all female travellers should carry.
The majority of female business travellers will travel without difficulty, however, depending on their destination they may encounter challenges that vary by country and region. It is important for both female travellers and those responsible for their safety to familiarise themselves with local laws and customs ahead of each trip. This can help travellers to be more aware of potential threats and how to avoid them, or how to react if they counter one. When travelling in countries with very conservative social norms and practices, having certain items may help in an emergency situation. We recommend carrying the following items on your person at all times:
1. Mobile Phone
This may seem like an obvious thing to carry on your person – and to be honest, who doesn’t carry their mobile on them at all times these days – but having a mobile phone on you is a must when heading abroad. Aim to pre-program and save local emergency service phone numbers for easy access, which will save you time if a situation arises. Likewise, if you’re travelling for business and your organisation uses traveller tracking apps, then ensure you keep all itineraries and check-ins up to date so that your wellbeing can be monitored.
Having a phone on you also helps you to stay on top of local news or receive risk alerts (if you’re subscribed to such a service), which enables you to stay ahead of developing situations and nearby threats. However, remember to use your phone discreetly, otherwise you may inadvertently make yourself a target for opportunistic criminals. For example, in Mexico the most recent iPhone can be worth four to six months salary in poorer areas.
2. Local Currency
When it comes to carrying local currency, we advise keeping two separate stashes on your person. Keep bigger bills and notes separate from any coins or smaller denominations. This way, if you are mugged or robbed, you can offer up the more more expendable collection of small change rather than serious sums of cash. Simply having something to present to a thief can help the incident to pass quickly so that you can get to safety and report the incident to the authorities.
3. Personal mini alarm
Always carry a mini personal alarm on your person at all times. This should be at least 120dB or louder. The mini personal alarm is similar to the whistle in that it not only alerts passers by to your distress and location but can help to intimidate attackers and scare them off for fear of being apprehended or approached. If you already own a mini personal alarm, check the batteries before you travel to make sure it is still working. Try to also keep it in an easy to access pocket or within easy reach in a bag so that you can quickly grab it and switch it on when needed.
4. Flashlight
Keep a pocket torch on your person as well as a portable solar charger or spare batteries in case you need them. When heading abroad, you probably won’t be hugely familiar with the local area – which means you probably won’t know the good areas from the bad, and the safe locations from the dangerous ones. Having a torch on your person can be useful if you need to read a map at night, need to check street signs while walking, ensuring you don’t trip over poor infrastructure, or even to simply illuminate a dark alley or street that otherwise may leave you feeling exposed and vulnerable.
5. Map of the local area
A map is an invaluable item to keep on your person if you’re heading abroad or to a destination that you’re not overly familiar with. Not only will it help you find all the great local attractions, but can help you navigate and find your way back to your accommodation without getting lost. Yes, you could use the map app on your phone in lieu of paper map, however a smartphone is a much more attractive and profitable item to steal for any opportunistic thieves operating nearby – but a paper map? Not so much. An added bonus is that reading a map can help fix routes and destinations in your head, so if you do need to call for assistance you can quickly relay where you are. This can be much harder if you’re following a blue trail on a digital map all the time. If you’re concerned with memorising locations and routes then it’s definitely worth considering plotting key locations on Google Maps and then printing out a few copies you can carry with you. You can then update the locations as necessary on your phone when in a safe area.
6. Photocopy of your passport
Your passport is the most valuable document you own, so ideally you don’t want to be carrying it around on your person all the time. This means that it’s best to leave your passport in a hotel safe or something similar and carry a colour photocopy around with you. If you’re subsequently robbed, mugged or held up then at least you won’t lose your passport, just a copy. Similarly, you don’t really want to be handing over your passport to anyone, even local authorities who may ask you for identification in more high-risk locations. In this case the photocopy should more than suffice. We recommend that you also take a colour photograph of your passport and email it to yourself. This lets you access a colour copy of your passport anywhere – providing there’s internet access. For added security, it may also be worth leaving both a printed and digital colour copy of your passport with a loved one at home. Having a digital copy can also help you if your passport is stolen because it makes it much easier for an embassy to cancel and renew a passport if you can show them the colour copy of the stolen document.
7. Door-stop
If you are travelling to a medium or high risk location then it may be worth taking a door-stop with you, especially if you feel vulnerable in your accommodation. Having your own door-stop that can be shoved under a door is a quick and easy way of adding another level of security protection to any room you are in.
8. Hotel/embassy address
If you don’t speak the local language, then it’s definitely wise to not only carry the address of your hotel, hostel or accommodation with you – but to do so in the language locals will understand. It’s also worthwhile keeping any other addresses you deem important on you, such as your nearest embassy for example. Carrying addresses in the local language can save you a lot of time trying to communicate where you want to go to a taxi driver or passerby who may not speak your language. Of course, this relies on you trusting the person you’re asking, so it’s best to judge each case as it comes. If it doesn’t feel right, leave and ask someone else – always trust your gut instinct.
Conclusion
The above items are not a guarantee of safety, but go some way to helping female travellers mitigate potential threats or to raise awareness if a situation arises. However, it is important to reaffirm the importance of pre-travel briefings and prep – it is always better to be aware of danger and to actively avoid it, than to travel into the unknown.
About the firm
Drum Cussac is a global security consultancy whose intelligence and analysis services (IAS) offer 24/7 advice via in-house intelligence operators and analysts, technology and a global network. Visit www.drum-cussac.com.
