Travel management companies have a vital role in client safety, says ABTA
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Research revealed the vital role of travel management companies in providing support and advice – and ABTA is there behind it.
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) released a study and found that although many business trips go as planned, managers are still concerned about their staff’s safety and health. These include potential security threats, health and medical concerns, harassment or violence against staff, natural disasters and severe weather conditions.
The research was conducted by Censuswide and involved 508 managers at companies where people travel for business (including 259 business decision makers) in Great Britain, between 31 January and 2 February 2018.
But the managers’ concerns are not the only point of the study. Victoria Bacon, director of brand and business development at ABTA, said: “Travel management companies have a vital role to play in supporting their clients to ensure that staff travelling on business have the best possible information and support.”
When asked about their concerns when a staff travels abroad, these are the respondents’ top concerns:
- 58% – health and medical issues
- 57% – security threats to staff
- 35% – potential harassment or violence against staff
- 35% – natural disasters and severe weather conditions.
Other issues of concern for managers included organising the correct entry documents at 53%, misunderstanding of local culture at 33% and accessibility for staff with a disability at 25%. However, a majority of them said that none of their staff had experienced any issues when travelling abroad in the last 12 months.
ABTA Crisis Management Support
“ABTA Member travel companies benefit from out of hours crisis management support along with email operational bulletins. ABTA’s team monitors events around the world and provides updates exclusively to ABTA Members, as well as passing on changes to Foreign Office advice as soon as they occur,” Bacon added.
ABTA provides crisis support, operational advice and bulletins about incidents and travel news that may affect their customers in the UK and overseas. 38 of the 50 largest travel management companies in the UK are ABTA members with a combined turnover of £10.4 billion.
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