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Is your company equipped to provide support to traveling employees?
Business travel opens the doors to growth and development, but as with anything it comes with a small element of risk. And in 2026, shifting global alliances and increasingly savvy cybercriminals mean a business travel risk management strategy is more essential than ever.
Business leaders, administrators, and HR professionals must work together to anticipate and mitigate today’s travel risks, ensuring safety for their teams. A combination of clear policy and smart technology provide the structure that holds your travel program together, so that all stakeholders can work as one during times of crisis.
In this article, we’ll cover the types of risks to keep on your radar, so you can proactively identify, assess, and mitigate potential threats while keeping traveling employees safe using a tech-forward approach.
From cyberattacks on travel infrastructure to natural disasters, today’s business travelers face a diverse range of risks. And what makes the landscape so difficult to navigate in 2026 is that many of the most notable risks are intertwined. Geopolitical tensions between countries can disrupt trade and supply chains, causing a multi-pronged challenge.
Extreme weather will continue to be a risk factor for business travelers in 2026. In this past year, we’ve seen record heatwaves in Greece, devastating wildfires in Los Angeles, floods in Pakistan, and a Category 5 hurricane in Jamaica. These hazardous weather conditions not only cause travel disruption, but create security risks for employees who may not have access to their usual communications and support.
Travel risk management company International SOS has identified the year’s biggest risk factors in its latest report, Risk Outlook 2026.
The Global Peace Index registered 159 state-based conflicts in 2025, more than any year since the 1940s. When conducting travel risk management, organizations often focus on these obvious security flashpoints.
Yet there’s also domestic instability in a wider range of countries that it’s important not to overlook. For example, social tensions could derail travel planning if employees find themselves stuck in a protesting crowd. It’s vital to understand the ever-changing nature of this type of risk, monitoring the news carefully.
Business travelers rely on their mobile devices to remain connected all over the world, but this can also leave them open to cyber security threats. At the same time, state and non-state actors are continually finding new ways to breach IT systems.
We can see the effects from examples like the September 2025 ransomware strike on aviation IT provider Collins Aerospace that disrupted operations at airports across Europe, including London, Berlin, and Brussels. Due to their digitized, complex operations, airports are frequent targets for this type of attack, with resilience needed to safeguard passenger safety.
Stable regulatory conditions are better for business, ensuring predictable pricing and improved cost controls. Yet the geopolitical and political uncertainty mentioned above also extends to regulatory uncertainty. Businesses increasingly face disruption to their usual supply chains and talent movement, while navigating a minefield of global tariffs and sanctions.
These threats were identified by International SOS’s own network of security and medical experts as well as a survey of external health, security, and risk professionals across 94 countries.
It’s clear there’s no better time to review and update your company policies to reflect the changing nature of global travel risks.
Another reason to develop an up-to-date travel risk management strategy is to meet corporate duty of care requirements. Corporate responsibility encompasses all the legal and ethical factors that businesses must consider. This includes taking reasonable steps to ensure the safety of your traveling employees.
Legal factors include:
Ethical factors include:
While the office is a contained, manageable environment, business travel will expose employees to different risks that fall beyond your control. This includes things like medical emergencies, travel disruption, geopolitical instability, and security threats. With a travel risk management framework, you’ll be better placed to anticipate, mitigate, and prevent these risks.
Embedding travel risk management into your corporate policies reduces liability risks while enhancing employee health and safety, satisfaction, and wellbeing.
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When it comes to corporate travel risk management, customization is key. The best approach will depend on your company’s size, goals, and regular travel patterns. Follow these steps to adapt the general principles of travel risk management to your company’s needs.
Before you dive into the finer details of corporate travel risk management, first consider your company travel patterns. When, where, and why do your team members travel for work? Are there regular routes and destinations, or is travel planned on an ad hoc basis? Pinpointing your patterns will help you refine your risk profiles.
Next, you’ll need to identify the types of risks your business travelers are most likely to face.
Evaluate your most frequent destinations, considering factors like political instability, crime rates, cultural differences, and severe weather.
Next, create traveler profiles to assess potential vulnerabilities. Take data points like role, experience, and unique needs into account.
A full corporate travel risk management program will not only look at external factors, but also at threats that could disrupt operations. How could travel disruption impact your company’s IT systems and supply chain?
Business travel risk categories:
Once you’ve identified the most likely risks, you’ll need to prioritize them in order of likelihood before moving on to mitigation.
Once you’ve identified the most likely general travel risks your team could face, it’s time to review your existing corporate travel policies. Does your travel policy outline roles, responsibilities, and procedures to follow in case of emergency? Do your processes comply with government travel advice?
An effective policy will provide an all-in-one framework to follow. Include formal communication protocols, like secure channels and 24/7 emergency contact details. It should also define which security features to look for in a business travel hotel, like electronic keycards, 24-hour front desk, CCTV in public areas, and safe neighborhood locations.
Communication is a central pillar of any travel risk management program, essential for duty of care. Employees should never feel isolated, even when traveling alone or in remote locations. When travelers need assistance, how will they reach out?
Designate approved channels, whether you use popular messaging tools like WhatsApp, internal platforms like Slack and Teams, or dedicated risk management apps like Restrata and International SOS.
Resilience means consistently testing these systems to make sure they’re always reliable. For employees traveling in remote areas, consider using mobile devices with roaming SIMs that can automatically switch between networks and maintain a signal.
With a communication framework in place, the next step is to establish your crisis management structure. Write emergency response plans and create go-to templates for each category of risk, such as medical emergencies, geopolitical incidents, and natural disasters.
For example, if a business traveler experiences flight disruption, they would need instructions for rebooking. But if they receive a security alert related to nearby wildfires, they need to know how to monitor conditions and get out of the area quickly.
Depending on your company’s size, you could choose crisis leads from each department, like HR, security, finance, and IT, to handle targeted risks. For smaller businesses, a single point of contact may be more feasible. Create standard scenario-based templates for reference so crisis leads know approved procedures and can provide guidance quickly.
With roles assigned, you can move on to employee training. Conduct tabletop exercises and interactive simulations meant to test plans and response times.
Modern business travel risk is complex, with manual processes no longer sufficient for keeping up with on-demand communication needs. Today’s travel risk management tools use AI and automation to centralize safety functions, while integrating with booking tools for a more seamless user experience.
Features to look for in a risk management platform include:
When business travelers experience disruption, this provides a learning opportunity. Ask for feedback or sit down for a debrief to assess the effectiveness of your travel risk management program.
Crafting and maintaining a business travel risk management program is a continuous process. Just as travel risks evolve, so too must your strategies.
When you book business trips with our free travel management solution, you’ll be able to build risk mitigation directly into each itinerary. Select business accommodations in safe areas and flights that bypass riskier routes.
Our partnership with Traxo allows you to view a live map of traveler locations, so you can provide targeted assistance and communicate more effectively. We also partner with International SOS to provide a travel risk management solution. You’ll gain access to 24/7 medical and security assistance along with real-time intelligence to keep your traveling teams safe, wherever they are.
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While some risks are obvious, like severe weather, others are more subtle, like online misinformation and underlying geopolitical tension. The strongest risk management plans will take all threats, clear and hidden, into account.
By categorizing risks, using scenario-based responses, and using centralized communication channels, you’ll be able to build an agile, proactive business travel risk management plan. When plans change unexpectedly, business travelers will have the tools needed to access seamless support.
Business continuity planning outlines what your company should do when faced with critical events. The aim of a continuity plan is to minimize downtime and get services back online, and travel risk management can help with proactive planning and regular risk assessments that could impact your business.
The ISO 31030:2021 is the global standard for travel risk management. It’s designed to provide a framework for organizations interested in managing business travel risk, with guidance dedicated to policy, program development, threat and hazard identification, opportunities, and mitigation strategies.
Travel risk management solutions like International SOS and World Travel Protection provide live threat alerts, traveler tracking, pre-trip assessments, and real-time risk monitoring. At the same time, data-driven tools like Riskline provide current alerts on everything from protests to airport delays to keep your workforce informed.
Do you know what to do if an employee is involved in a crisis while out of the office?
Travel risk management is an important element to keep in mind and learn to navigate.
You want to keep employees safe, which is why a business travel risk assessment is essential.
