Flak jacket at the ready, Simon Kearney talks to corporate risk management and hotel security bosses about the lengths they go to in order to keep business travellers safe and well

AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER 2009, A FORMER colleague of mine, Saleem Vaillancourt, was visiting Islamabad for a wedding and to do some work at the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP).

The WFPs Pakistani headquarters are in a converted mansion on a sleepy Islamabad street, with two military checkpoints at either end.

Vaillancourt arrived as the gates of the fortified compound opened and a small convoy of UN white four-wheel drives hurried out, antennas flapping in the air. Once past the security perimeter, he met a receptionist in the foyer and proceeded to his meeting. “The receptionist must have been in her thirties, she was wearing a head scarf and glasses,” he says, recalling only a few small details from their brief meeting.

Exactly seven days later, October 5, a suicide bomber walked into the same foyer, around the same time, and detonated his explosives, killing five aid workers, including the receptionist on duty.

Such close calls are weekly, if not daily occurrences for travellers in some countries. While we watch the news at home, countless business travellers are weaving their way around the carnage thanks to good fortune, like Vaillancourt’s, and increasingly, thanks to good planning.

The world has not necessarily become riskier, but the ease of travel has created many more opportunities for something to go wrong.

As more people travel, a growing number of corporate risk companies have begun helping travellers stay safe. Hotel chains, too, are joining forces to improve their security, setting aside corporate rivalries for a moment.

Corporate risk firms, like Control Risks, one of the largest, can get you to a meeting in Baghdad, rescue you from a hotel under attack or arrange a speedy medical evacuation if you fall ill in the wrong place. It can prepare you for being taken hostage and even teach you how to dress a gunshot wound.

Control Risks was formed in the 1970s after international business executives became the target of kidnappers in South America and the insurance industry sought specialist advice to minimise their risk to ransoms. The company’s story inspired the kidnap-for-ransom film Proof of Life, starring Russell Crowe and Meg Ryan.

Bruce Hayes, Control Risks’ head of crisis and security consulting in South-East Asia, says apathy is the biggest danger, not terrorists.

“Travellers need to be more aware of the risks in places they are visiting. A greater degree of research, planning and implementation of common-sense security practices needs to apply,’’ he says. “It is often the case that travellers are their own worst enemy, with complacency being the root cause of problems arising.”

Control Risks’ latest triumph was the rescue of 13 of its clients trapped in the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower hotel in Mumbai in November 2008, after gunmen stormed the building and held police at bay for three days. The company’s success was driven by strong contacts with the Indian counter-terrorist police.

After 15 years in the region running medical evacuation services and hospitals, Peter Lindner argues that preparing for a health emergency is critical, just as having the wrong travel insurance could leave you bankrupt. He remembers one European couple – with travel insurance – left out of pocket by more than US$52,000 after the man had a heart attack. The couple’s travel policy classified a heart attack as an illness not an accident, rendering the incident as not covered.

He says having a good medical assistance programme can be important if you need to be medically evacuated across borders or to find a good hospital. “Hospitals and doctors come in all kinds of sizes and versions. In places like Bangkok, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, there are good international-standard hospitals, but even so, some advice on who to see is always good,’’ he says. “Being evacuated to Bangkok or Singapore is not a bad thing. Some people think it is, but care is very good and in some cases might be better.”

Hotels are also working as hard as ever to protect their guests. Alan Orlob is the global head of security for the Marriott International hotel chain, whose hotels in Islamabad and Jakarta have both suffered serious bombings in the last 18 months. He says he concentrates on making his hotels safe from such attacks but is equally concerned with the safety of guests who merely want to go outside for a jog, or find a local restaurant.

“You really need to analyse the threat; is it worse for terrorism, or for a hotel fire, or rape, or a robbery – many more people have been exposed to those things,” he says. Orlob’s answer is to design their hotels to keep the guests inside the security perimeter.

After the Mumbai attacks, there was a move to avoid landmark or flagship five-star hotels. But Orlob believes the five-star security and facilities offered by Marriott and other similar hotels outweigh the risks of staying somewhere else. Risk consultant Fraser Bomford of AKE Group, a corporate risk manager that specialises in media clients, agrees. AKE recently surveyed hotels in a city in Pakistan and found many media personnel were staying in guest houses with little or no security, presumably because of the accommodation’s low profile. AKEs subsequent assessment still rated the flagship hotels as the better option, for their ability to survive an attack – even though it often advises its clients that keeping a low profile is the surest way of working safely.

Two years ago, Orlob started an international hotel-security working group to share information and intelligence between chains. “We just met in Mumbai last month. We had the [US] State Department anti-terrorist assistance unit training our people. We exchange best practices,” he says. After recent hotel attacks involved terrorists who were staying in-house, Marriott has begun training staff to spot suspicious behaviour by guests. The training materials have been shared with other chains at no cost through the working group.

Orlob worries that the corporate risk managers in the travel industry can foster more fear than is warranted. “I’m sure all those companies are benefiting, but it’s a little bit frustrating at times; they almost raise the level of fear more than it needs to be,” he says.

There is no doubt it is a lucrative business. Having an ex-special forces soldier looking after you in Baghdad may cost several thousand US dollars a day. Many clients are willing to pay for that sort of peace of mind and, as the business evolves, the range of services increases. Control Risks has expanded its remit to include intelligence on political risk for the financial markets. They help firms raise capital by providing detailed background information on countries that are considered risky by large banks.

Another firm, Global Strategies Group, assists elections in Afghanistan, designs airport security in Iraq and runs a mine awareness and victim rehabilitation programme in Vietnam.

Bomford’s firm, the British-based AKE Group, is a favourite among the media for its ability to allow them to work in places like Baghdad and Kabul – in specific areas where it is dangerous to be. AKE’s teams of highly skilled former soldiers blend into the local environment, yet have an array of resources at their disposal, not least of which is weaponry and the ability to fight their way out of a tight spot if they have to. Business is good. While their work in Iraq is tapering off, the demand in Afghanistan is picking up to compensate. The firm also runs a kidnap negotiation service that is attracting clients from South America to the Philippines and Russia.

Bomford says the industry is still embryonic but there is little sign of the growth in demand slacking off. AKE has just opened up an office in Sydney in the hope of attracting insurance clients, much as Control Risks did when it began (it now has 27 offices worldwide).

Even with the option of having such an armoury behind you, Martin Chulov, Baghdad correspondent for

British newspaper The Guardian, says common sense is still your most important asset. Although, he adds, the best common sense is borne of years on the road.

Chulov’s advice to travellers in Asia is mundane but important. “Credit card phishing and electronic scams are quite widespread in Asia these days. Keep a very close eye on bank statements, especially for double billings and strange charges. Vaccinations are also important, keep them up to date,” he says.

Chulov works in some pretty frightening environments – his near-miss came when he was standing five metres away from a car bomb blast in Baghdad. He has a satellite phone and medical kit always on hand. Lindner advises people with potentially serious pre-existing conditions to carry a letter from a doctor in the local language. Hayes offers the tip of carrying two mobile phones. Bomford suggests making sure you get a picture of anyone you’re meeting for the first time. Vaillancourt ensures he leaves a trusted friend at home with access to all his travel documents, monitoring his movements.

Travellers concerned about the most visible threats of terrorism and natural disasters can at least be comforted that stats are on their side. The WHO estimates that 90% of road traffic deaths occur in low- to middle-income countries – which equates to over one million deaths a year. “Road crashes can be viewed as acts of violence that constitute a much greater threat than terrorist attacks. Every day, many more people die as a result of road crashes than terrorism,” notes Rochelle Sobel, founder of the Association for Safe International Road Travel.

Putting on your seatbelt in the taxi from the airport is likely to be the smartest thing you can do to keep yourself out of harm’s way.

Tracking Travellers

It’s important your travel management company has the ability to provide valuable information before you travel and keep your company informed of your whereabouts when travelling. A rapidly deteriorating security situation can occur after a coup, terrorist attack or a disease outbreak. In ’06, Thailand and Fiji experienced coups that occurred relatively suddenly – resulting in troops being deployed on the streets of their capitals. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai and Jakarta in ’08 and ’09 suddenly changed the outlook in those cities, while disease outbreaks such as SARS and, more recently, the H1N1 virus, resulted in radically different risk levels for travellers around the world.

CWT’s Safety and Security Manager Amy Padgett Koch told CONNECT that they provide alerts to travellers to keep them up to date with such events. The company’s travel safety arm also provides detailed country intelligence on destinations, featuring not only security briefings but also information about cultural and legal issues that could potentially land travellers in hot water. For instance, in the United Arab Emirates it is illegal to carry codeine, a popular over-the-counter drug for pain relief that is readily available in many countries. Accidentally carrying the drug can result in deportation or imprisonment.

Ms Koch added that an itinerary tracking programme monitors CWT’s clients; many of whom opt to pass this information on to third-party risk managers for additional peace of mind. “Safety and security is increasingly tantamount,” she said. “It is also part of a company’s duty of care.”