Business travelers, do you feel confident?
According to research conducted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) in collaboration with AIG Travel, 8 in 10 women say they have had one or more safety-related concerns or incidents while traveling for business in 2019. Women take precautions in many facets of their lives, especially when it comes to personal safety and, business travel, is no different.
But let's look at the GBTA report in numbers:
1) 90% say that security concerns have an effect on activities
2) 86% highlight the female behavior at the time of booking and that impacts on the final decision making. Clear examples would be booking only daytime flights or a central location of destination accommodation.
3) 84% cite a direct impact on their reluctance depending on the location where they travel for business.
4) 81% indicate that their frequency of travel for business has been affected by security concerns.
5) 80% say security concerns have directly impacted their productivity
on business travel.According to Amanda Cecil, GBTA senior vice president of professional development and research, “research demonstrates the immense impact the travel experience can have on productivity and business results while female passengers are traveling. Ultimately, all travelers want to be productive and do business, so it is necessary to understand the specific risks faced by this particular group.
For her part,Rhonda Sloan, director of marketing and industry relations at AIG Travel, notes that “research findings show that many women business travelers are aware of and concerned about the challenges they face while traveling for work. Their companies have a long way to go in providing more guidance and resources to help women minimize those risks”.
PRECAUTIONS
Women take precautions in many facets of their lives, especially when it comes to personal safety and, business travel, is no different. While traveling on business, more than half of women communicate regularly with the office, family or friends (58%). They only stay in hotels they trust or that have already been recommended by experienced female travelers (56%) or share their itinerary with family and friends (51%), among other safety measures.
This comes as no surprise, given that 71% of female business travelers believe they are at a higher risk than their male counterparts. Their top concerns include general safety (78%), sexual harassment and assault (72%), travel to certain countries and cities (68%) and risk of assault or kidnapping (65%).
While many women choose to book a traditional hotel for business travel (70%), shared accommodations such as Airbnb or HomeAway are an important part of the market (24%), and female business travelers take special safety precautions when booking both forms of lodging.
In hotels, women who travel often seek trusted chains (74%), consider the safety of neighborhood (67%) and prefer locations near their work site (64%). In shared housing, more than half book properties with very high ratings or that only host women and are managed by women (57%).
When it comes to ground transportation, 81% of female travelers feel that car rental services are safe, while just over half (53%) feel the same about ridesharing services. In this case, 49% confirm the driver's name and as much data as possible before getting into the vehicle and, again, in many cases only managed and driven by women.
FLAWS IN TRAVEL POLICIES
Women travelers generally have confidence in their organization's risk management programs, with 83% believing that they have a good understanding of the risks they face;83% believe they are concerned about their safety, while 87% report that they feel comfortable expressing their safety concerns to their travel manager or travel program buyers.
However, they feel that more can be done for them. More than two-thirds (68%) of female business travelers think their company should have policies that specifically address the needs of female business travelers. A recent survey of corporate travel managers revealed that only 18% had specific policies for this group.
Women traveling on business value the security resources their organizations already offer, but also want additional resources, such as having an emergency contact or a hotline
Women traveling on business value the security resources their organizations already offer, but also want additional resources, such as having an emergency contact or a security hotline hotline where they receive travel care directly related to a case of sexual harassment, assault or even getting out of a kidnapping well.
THE ROLE OF SUPPLIERS
Business Travel suppliers have long been developing specific products to meet the needs and requirements of women. Hotel chains
They are the most advanced in this field and the pioneers. A clear example are room floors “women only”.
The Bella Sky Comwell hotel in Copenhagen was the first in Europe to dedicateó an entire floor to women's rooms, although the Danish courts have considered this to be a type of discrimination. The Riu Guadalajara in Mexico also adopted a similar measure, but there was insufficient demand for the experience and the chain abandoned the project at the end of 2015.
Among other strategies that have worked better is to reserve several hotel rooms only for women, with specific products for them. Many hotel chains already offer amenities such as pajamas, stockings, masks, makeup items or hair mousse.
?Why? After the 9/11 attacks and the increase of security measures at airports, business travelers were observed to reduce the use of toiletries and beauty products in order to get through checkpoints and scanners as quickly as possible. Hotels then scrambled to offer more in-room products, especially for women.
In the airline arena, Asian women have ventured into women-only lounges on the plane or women-only lounges at airports.
Although there are no travel agencies specializing in female business travelers —perhaps—s completely unnecessary—, the case of Focus on Women, where they organize tailor-made trips for groups of female executives, stands out. In 2014 Alice Fauveau, CEO of the agency, declared that “it is a safer and more enriching way to get to know a destination, hand in hand with other prominent women in the country”.
In the field of collaborative economy, such as Blablacar or Carpooling, there are also offers for travel or car transfers only for women
.