SAFE PASSAGE

What travelers should know about taking care when they take to the road in a post-panic world

- FATIMA DURRANI KHAN

Looking ahead to the world as it emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, business travelers face a daunting balancing act: managing current risks and working to reboot their enterprises. So it’s more important than ever for business travelers to understand their insurance needs, company risks and best practices for personal safety.

While international business travel is beginning to open, the notion of “getting back to normal” is still a far cry from reality. As it stands, shrinking economies around the world and a likely number of failures across the travel industry will necessitate a continued overall slower pace for business travel. Add to this mix recent civil unrest in the US and elsewhere and the danger of new COVID-19 outbreaks, and we may be in a “one step forward, two steps back” scenario for many months ahead.

The pandemic response is generating almost daily changes to travel providers’ policies, and confusing (and sometimes contradictory) health guidelines from different sources. In such an environment, rebuilding trust in travel will be the primary driver behind decision-making.

“With a pandemic like COVID-19, employers and employees now have to assess a risk which is quite different than a political or natural disaster risk, and a risk that is worldwide, so employers need to exercise caution for domestic travel as well,” says Dominick Zenzola, vice president and senior manager of accident and health underwriting at global insurer Axis.