International travel brings a bevy of challenges the domestic traveler never faces.
When a corporation sends its employees out of the U. S., it is liable for their safety and
must be able to locate them quickly, especially in areas of headline-making unrest. And,
before the trip, travelers need to familiarize
themselves with security resources and foreign cultures and make arrangements for
currency, passports and visas.
A managed travel process will monitor and
address these issues as needed so you don’t
have to, providing you with an up-to-date version of what makes safe travel, says Kathleen
France, director of international reservations
and services at Professional Travel.
Smart Business spoke to France about the
challenges associated with international travel and ideas to help mitigate your risk.
How should businesses monitor hot spots
around the globe?
The best method is to partner with a travel
management company that provides daily
updates on travel, security, health and weather alerts directly to your travelers and human
resource staff. That way, you’ll know if your
travelers are going to be affected by a tsunami in Japan, terror threats in London, a strike
by Lufthansa ticket agents, or exposure to
avian flu overseas.
How do you stay abreast of security issues?
With more than 190 countries in the world
and varying degrees of unrest and potential
disasters, no one source can fully prepare
your travelers for all potential hot spots. As
part of risk assessment, your travel management company has a responsibility to subscribe to the various monitoring services that
provide instant updates 24/7/365 — and disseminate the information to you. These
resources focus on the traveler, risks they
may face, impacts, delays, strikes and health
concerns; many of which won’t appear on
your evening news or Internet search, but are
invaluable to your travelers.
What difficulties do foreign currencies pose?
People take foreign currency for granted;
they assume you can walk into an airport and get it anytime and at the lowest price.
Unfortunately, if there is an airport location,
they typically charge a significant premium.
It’s always recommended that travelers plan
ahead and carry at least $100 U.S. This way, if
a flight is delayed or canceled, and the airport
machines don’t work, the traveler can still
reach his or her destination. Don’t exchange
currency on the street; be cautious and use
reputable sources.
How can a travel management company help
with documentation and visas?
You have a responsibility through internal
processes or through your travel management firm to ensure your travelers are able to
enter and exit their international destinations. Do your employees have valid U.S.
passports? Do they have at least six months
remaining and pages that are still blank?
Some countries require itineraries; others
need letters of invitation, and this often
changes daily. You used to not need a letter of
invitation for Brazil; now you do because the
relationship has changed between the two
governments. Your travel management company plays a pivotal role in helping you
through the red tape.
What about paper tickets?
Only domestically has everything gone
electronic, and from a human resource point
of view, gone is the day of stapling passenger
receipts to expense reports. However, many
foreign carriers haven’t ramped up to fully
utilize electronic tickets. Some of these carriers have partnered with major airlines, allowing your travel management company to validate and issue tickets on other carriers for
electronic ticketing. So if Continental allows
them to validate China Eastern, and China
Eastern in a given city doesn’t allow an electronic ticket, your travel management company will validate a ticket and sell it as a
Continental coach seat with an electronic
ticket. The fare may be slightly higher, but
changes can be made; otherwise, the traveler
would have to go to the China Eastern ticket
counter in some small city in China to do this.
Then, the traveler would have to deal with
ticket agents who likely speak little to no
English, and he or she will have to pay whatever amount they say. They’re looking at a
ticket issued in U.S. dollars, not their currency, and sometimes their calculations are correct and sometimes they’re not. Sometimes
they’ll stamp it and just say ‘go,’ but the traveler may have to buy a new ticket home.
Electronic tickets have saved international
clients hundreds of hours of standing in line,
not to mention having to bring back paper
coupons they don’t know the value of.
What other risks does international travel
pose?
Namely, the risk of not knowing where
your employees are. Without a managed travel program, it’s nearly impossible to track
this. When an international situation arises,
your travel management company can
proactively e-mail you and say it has no one
at a certain hotel, for example, that was
booked through it. Corporations need to
tighten up all those things, to be able to look
to one source to find out if employees are in
harm’s way.
KATHLEEN FRANCE is the director of international reservations and services at Professional Travel. Reach her at (440) 734-8800
x4105 or [email protected].
