International SOS releases 2018 Travel Risk Map: Join the webinar

13 November, 2017

Organisations make strides in planning for the unknown as risk perception remains high, but major business resilience aspects are being missed

International SOS revealed the latest insights into the actions and attitudes of business decision-makers when it comes to the health, safety and security of their global mobile workforce.

The Ipsos MORI Global Business Risks & Realities survey, which consists of 667 business decision-makers across 69 countries, reveals that the perception of risk remains elevated and while organisations are increasingly implementing prevention and mitigation measures there are still opportunities for improvement as major strategic aspects are being missed.

The survey found that travel plans were changed, predominantly, due to concerns over security threats (58%), followed by natural disasters (43%). This was consistent across the globe, apart from the Americas where natural disasters was first and security threats second. At a global level these are followed by travel risk ratings (42%) and civil unrest (34%).

Perception of Risk Remains at an Elevated Level

63% of business decision-makers perceive travel risks to have increased in the past year, reflecting a global softening from 72% in the previous year. However, the Americas and Australasia regions stand out with 78% and 72% respectively reporting increased risk in 2017. Risk rating changes on the latest edition of the Travel Risk Map include increase risk in some areas of the Caribbean and Puerto Rico due to the effects of the hurricanes and a decrease in risk in some European countries thanks to improved standards of medical care.

Striving for Business Resilience

While the preventative agenda in medical and travel risk mitigation is clearly on the rise, the survey reveals that a strategic and far-reaching view may currently be a missed opportunity by many organisations. Only 9% of organisations updated their sustainability programme to include their travel risk policy and just 10% introduced a wellbeing policy, falling at the bottom of the risk mitigation techniques implemented in 2017.

Risk Response & Challenges

Organisations continue to introduce risk mitigation techniques. The highest response regarding steps taken in response to travel health and security concerns is the introduction of pre-trip and during trip emails, with 39% of decision makers reporting to have introduced this in 2017. However, organisations still face challenges in ensuring the health and security of travellers, with educating employees (53%) and communicating with employees in a crisis on a par with ensuring they have read pre-travel information (44%).

View the Travel Risk Map here.

International SOS and Control Risks will host webinars based on the key global issues and emerging trends in Dec-2017. The webinars are open to the public and you can register here.