For the Business Traveler Worried About Security: You’re Not Alone
One panelist, Julia Fidler, who manages travel for Microsoft, said, “We’re definitely seeing
more requests from travelers who ask, ‘Tell me what to do; who do I go to to ask?’”
She added, “They still want to talk to somebody, know what number to dial, and if there will be somebody there to assist them.”
A recent study by the association on how current geopolitical issues are affecting travel found
that of the 239 corporate travel managers surveyed, 56 percent said they had seen an increase in reports of heightened personal safety concerns in late 2016 and early this year.
“In the last six months, it’s gone from a simmer to a boil,” said Evan Konwiser, a vice president at American Express Global Business Travel, who moderated
a session at a recent Association of Corporate Travel Executives conference in New York on how to support and protect business travelers.
“The pace of change is faster now than ever before
and reaching to more regions not traditionally considered high risk,” Greeley Koch, executive director at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, said in an interview.
For many travelers, he added, buying supplemental coverage has “not been top of mind.”
The industry trend, Mr. Carnicelli said, is to make policies easier to understand
and provide coverage “more tailored toward individual travel needs.” Identify theft protection, for example, is increasingly important in some countries.
