In a world that is now more interconnected than ever, travel has become an essential need for both people and organizations. However, wherever you travel, with complexity comes risk — from health risks to security risks. Technology has enhanced the ability to put in place the framework for Travel Risk Management (TRM) and provided a number of technological solutions — GPS tracking, real-time alerts, risk intelligence apps, etc. These technology solutions, together with appropriate TRM planning and policies, can provide NGOs with an effective risk mitigation and preparation process so that travelers are kept safe, informed, and connected during travel. This article will review how technology has enhanced travel safety.
Travel Risk Management (TRM): An Overview
Travel Risk Management is a proactive strategy that seeks to anticipate, analyze, and minimize travel-related risk. As stated in the Travel Risk Management Handbook, TRM is used for managing the protection of people and organizational assets. It includes recognizing risks, contracting with risk treatment protocols, and communicating potential exposures on time. Technology arms TRM with enhanced potential by allowing agencies to monitor risk reports in “real-time”, ensure proper risk evaluation, and make timely responses during a crisis or disruption.
Organizations employing TRM strategies protect employees and assure their “duty of care” responsibilities. Duty of care is a legal and moral obligation for protecting travelers’ physical safety while limiting their possible exposure to lawsuits, and it also represents an ongoing element of business continuity. Technology allows organizations to interact with potential threats preemptively and offers a new way to ensure travel safety and manage travel risk.
GPS Tracking: A Crucial Component of Traveler Safety
GPS tracking is a powerful feature of contemporary TRM by providing real-time location data to assist organizations in monitoring and supporting travelers. This is critical in high-risk areas and/or emergencies, such as natural disasters, civil unrest, or medical emergencies. In addition to live tracking, organizations may be able to create geofences around high-risk areas, and notifications are pushed to travelers when they are entering that area, letting them know to proceed with caution or avoid the area entirely. The ability to monitor travelers provides organizations with real-time movement of their travelers to ensure a timely intervention if they stray from safe movements or are confronted with risks they did not expect.
Further, GPS means that organizations can provide even further assistance to travelers in emergencies by directing help to the exact location of the traveler. For organizations, this is a way to manage duty of care obligations, and for travelers and their families, they can have peace of mind knowing that they have easy access to support and intervention.
Real-Time Alerts: Anticipating and Responding to Risks
Timely information can be critical to traveler safety, and real-time alerts are an important part of effective TRM. Alerts encourage travelers to remain aware of the current threat environment throughout their travel and respond to any potential dangers. Localized alerts will inform travelers of possible threats in their region that they may face, whether that may be political instability in the form of protests, severe weather events, or health-related incidents. Health and medical alerts provide timely updates on disease risks, environmental hazards, or other public health issues.
Likewise, many systems now offer tailored alerts for travelers specific to their travel itinerary and risk profile. These types of alerts allow the traveler to receive information that is most relevant to them. Real-time alerts not only improve personal safety but also enable organizations to do better risk management by reducing potential incidents and improving situational awareness.
Risk Intelligence Apps: Comprehensive Insights at Your Fingertips
Risk intelligence apps provide a detailed understanding of potential risks by pulling in information from a variety of sources and displaying it in a format the user wants to use and understand. Risk intelligence apps have become key tools in TRM approaches. The apps complete detailed risk assessments and evaluations and provide a clear picture of the risk exposure of a specific destination or activity. Also, a secure digital check-in feature provided by the app permits the traveler to check in regarding their safety at regular intervals and confirm that they are safe, which puts the organization up-to-date on their status at the same time.
Also, incident reporting tools in risk intelligence apps allow travelers to quickly document and escalate issues through the app, so the organization can respond immediately. By integrating risk data and safety tools into a single platform, risk intelligence apps allow both travelers and organizations to make better decisions, build organizational resilience, and address potential risks before they escalate.
The Role of Technology in Organizational TRM Programs
Technological advances have fundamentally changed the way organizations create and implement TRM programs. Now, GPS tracking, real-time alerts, and risk intelligence apps are all components of an organized risk management strategy. These technologies enable organizations to monitor risks, evaluate risks, and respond to risks to ensure their travelers’ safety and the protection of their business.
For organizations, the use of technology provides benefits on multiple levels. It enhances compliance with the duty of care by providing travelers with safety resources and timely information. It enables organizations to respond holistically to crisis response intervals by mitigating impacts on both travel and the organization by enabling immediate interventions in crises. Also, managing travel risks employs technology which are more proactive, which builds organizational resilience and enables continuity in business during global events. The travel risk management handbook explains how using technology is part of a TRM program that provides organizations with greater capabilities for the identification, assessment, and treatment of risk, which is an important factor necessary for success.
Cybersecurity and Data Protection
While technology is often a great way to enhance safety in travel, it can also present cybersecurity concerns. The Travel Risk Management Handbook notes that organizations should appreciate just how sensitive their data can be and the need to ensure their travelers are using secure networks and devices when they travel. These best practices can include traveling with an organization-approved Virtual Private Network (VPN) for public Wi-Fi, regularly applying software updates to reduce vulnerabilities, and encrypting sensitive data to avoid unauthorized access.
Organizations need to have very firm cybersecurity protocols in place to protect both the traveler and the organization’s data. The technology that enhances safety can also be exploited with no safeguards; thus, representatives of an organization must balance innovation with good Cybersecurity practices to take advantage of TRM tools without really compromising data integrity.
Conclusion
Technology’s influence on Travel Risk Management has radically changed the means by which individuals and organizations manage travel safety. With technologies such as GPS tracking, real-time alerts, and risk intelligence applications providing tools and information for travelers to confidently navigate risks with intentionality, organizations’ level of obligation to comply with their duty of care increases, and they increase their capacity for crisis response and business continuity over the long term.
There is no doubt that technology continues to evolve travel as we know it and its accompanying risk. The ability to harness the technological advances and savvy associated will be critical for safe, reliable, and informed journeys. The Travel Risk Management Handbook is an important reminder of the ease with which technology can mitigate risks while enhancing traveler safety and organizational resilience in the world today.
