Businesses are set to raise their spending on the travel safety of their employees amid a widespread belief that there will be even greater security risks over the next year, according to a global Ipsos MORI survey of more than 1000 business leaders.
It found that 72 per cent believed that traveling became more dangerous last year and more than half (57pc) believe it will become even more perilous over the next 12 months.
Some companies said that they had changed their employees’ travel itineraries over the last year due to new safety threats in countries, with Europe the region most associated with an increased risk for travel – even more so than in the Middle East.
Findings from the study, commissioned by International SOS, the medical and travel security services company, suggest almost half of respondents (48pc) say their organisations investment in travel risk mitigation has increased over the past year, and 47pc believe this will increase further in the coming year. The top risk mitigation activities were:
– Reinforced travel security measures (50pc)
– Updated travel risk policy (45pc); and
– Introduced pre-trip advisory emails (39pc).
The company, which provides medical and security services to more than 10,000 multinational corporations, governments and NGOs has also produced its annual Travel Risk Map for 2017, covering travel security, road safety and medical issues. Concerns on a global level are potential terror attacks (51pc), followed by civil unrest (36pc), with inadequate healthcare and road accidents at 13pc and 15pc respectively.
