61% of business travellers believe that a British passport gives them special privileges or powers when travelling, rising to two-thirds (67%) of under 34s.
According to the survey of 500 business travellers, conducted by Opinium* and commissioned by World Travel Protection, a leading global travel assistance organisation, this belief may be wishful thinking, particularly as the survey reveals a lack of risk management planning from organisations.

Just a fifth (22%) of business travellers say they are offered a full briefing from their organisation on their travelling destination, and nearly a quarter (23%) say their employer lets them undertake their own travel research.

If something were to go wrong abroad less than a quarter (23%) say they are given an emergency number to call outside of UK business hours. Also, only a fifth (22%) receive regular check-ins from their organisations to ensure their safety and comfort when travelling.
Three fifths (62%) think their employers could do more to keep them safe when they are travelling, 63% would like them to check in on them more whilst travelling, and two thirds (67%) would change employers if they thought their safety when travelling wasn’t a priority.
Half of business travellers (50%) say their organisation uses a travel risk management company, rising to 57% of those in medium-sized companies (50 – 249 employees), compared to just a quarter of those in micro-businesses (under 10 employees). However, only a fifth (18%) say they have access to a travel risk app e.g., with live destination security alerts and the ability to call for emergency assistance. These are generally provided by a travel risk management company, e.g., World Travel Protection has a newly launched ‘Travel Assist’ app.
The survey finds that in just a quarter (24%) of organisations, business travel is managed by a centralised team which may explain why travellers are facing communication challenges, when it comes to risk management information.

Kate Fitzpatrick, Regional Security Director, UK, World Travel Protection says: “It’s very worrying that business travellers think a British passport will give them special rights and privileges, because it won’t. If you break the law in a country, perhaps by flouting cultural conventions, you can be thrown into prison and it’s not enough to plead ignorance and hope your nationality will come to your rescue.
“Organisations need to provide in-depth briefings to their travelling teams to ensure that any risk in travel is minimised. This includes health information from Covid to Monkey Pox, to checking the weather, such as when hurricane season is and not forgetting socio-political issues, including upcoming elections or planned protests. All of these can all have a dramatic impact on a stay.

“Ensuring your staff know what to do and what help is available, if anything does go wrong, is a very basic duty of care so it’s worrying to hear that so few business travellers say they have this support. It’s also concerning that while this support may be available in the form of a travel risk management company, the information is clearly not reaching the right people. There was a lot of job movement in the pandemic, and one reason may be that new staff who joined just before or during the pandemic and have not travelled yet for business are unaware of the available travel support.

“The world has changed since the pandemic and it’s more important than ever to get up to speed with the risks and altered landscape. If you’re travelling on business and your company has a travel risk management partner, they’ll be an excellent source of information to help you prepare for travel, as well as supporting you while you’re away.”