Mitigating the Risk of Incentive Travel

We live in a dangerous world. Diseases, natural disasters, violence—there are plenty of things to threaten our bodily health, and incentive travel is not immune to these threats. However, when it comes to travel there are risks beyond the merely physical. Transportation issues, labor disputes, and data security are all potential hazards. Travel planners, therefore, must excel in risk assessment and mitigation. There are always risks, some of which can’t be foreseen or avoided, but planners implementing the following steps can give their clients a safer, smoother travel experience.

Identify Risks

Identifying potential hazards is the beginning of your efforts to mitigate them. This should be your first order of business, since it is directly tied to your client’s destination. What risks are involved in this location? For example, you probably wouldn’t want to arrange a Florida getaway if there’s a hurricane nearby. Similarly, booking a hotel in the thick of a bedbug crisis is never a good idea. Researching your destination, airline, etc. beforehand will save you a lot of grief.

Determine Consequences

Identifying potential risks allows you to determine the consequences of each hazard. What would each risk, were it to become a reality, mean for the group? Some threats are worse than others, after all. A delayed flight is frustrating, to be sure, but not as problematic as a hurricane headed for your hotel. Some risks would affect the whole trip, others would not. It’s important to know which hazards could ruin everything, and which occurrences could be overcome.

Create a Risk-Management Plan

Researching potential hazards, and the possible effects on your client’s experience, equips you to make a risk-management plan. How will you respond to each potential crisis? These are some of the most important elements of your risk-management plan:

• Identify the nearest hospital and pharmacy. You’ll need to be able to get to these locations quickly in case of an emergency.
• If you’re in another country, locate the US embassy and learn their hours of operation.
• Determine which staff members, if any, have emergency training in CPR, first aid, etc.
• Designate an emergency meeting place. Everyone will need to get to the same area if there’s a fire, flood, or similar crisis. But this meeting place is also important in the event of someone getting separated from the rest of the group.
• Create or learn an evacuation strategy. It’s important that everyone knows what to do if building evacuation is called for. This strategy isn’t merely identifying a meeting place, however—it also deals with the most efficient and orderly way to evacuate.
• Learn your venue’s policy on lost or stolen items.
• Identify your venue’s strategies for data security and information theft prevention.
• Determine who should be contacted in the event of an emergency.

Any traveler is accepting some degree of risk. There is always the chance of some unforeseen circumstance occurring. However, keeping track of potential hazards can still save you a lot of trouble. It always pays to have a plan. After all, travelers want an experience they will look back on fondly, not an unpleasant experience that could have been prevented. Mitigating risk is advantageous to you, your business, and your valued clients. It’s worth the time and effort.

Get help mitigating your travel incentive risk.  Contact Gavel International for more information about how outsourced travel incentives can help your business.