"There are several destinations we have not yet been able to travel to."

Luisa Juanes is the head of Travel Management at Werfen, a family company based in the Barcelona town of Hospitalet with more than 50 years of experience. World leader in in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and specialized in hemostasis, intensive care and autoimmunity, she has not stopped traveling in all this time of pandemic, although much less and in other conditions, logically.

¿Are you traveling internationally? Which countries and how often?

We started international travel in the second half of 2020. The countries we frequent are Portugal, northern and central Europe and England. We are also going to Boston, San Diego, Colombia and Mexico. In Asia, mainly Japan and Hong Kong.

The frequency issue has changed. In the past, we used to have trips that were somewhat routine, as they were visits to our headquarters or customers. Taking into account that the head office is in Barcelona, it was very common to have face-to-face contact with them.   Now we do not have any defined frequency. Depending on the need of the trips we review the possibilities and restrictions that exist, and depending on this we book. 

  ?Qué reasons prevail to make these international trips?

The vast majority of these trips are made by executives. We have established from the beginning of this pandemic situation channels with information on all restrictions, as well as guidelines that suppliers have established to provide maximum security for travel. It was agreed that the travel justification is received by the manager of the affected division or department. They evaluate if the trip is essential and authorize it. We give all the necessary support so that it can be done with guarantees and following the regulations, since it is not easy because there are so many changes and restrictions in international departures. In addition, we have a travel tracker tool that allows us to locate all trips booked and through which I do a daily follow-up.

?How did you plan the trips abroad, is there any country that you have ruled out because of its difficulty?

We have the information provided by the travel agency, the airline companies and also a service provider that has been supporting us for several years in our international travels. With these tools I inform the interested parties —normally the traveler and his manager— of the existing restrictions. If we need clarification or to review a very specific issue, I contact the embassy of the country and request the necessary information to make the trip. We intend to travel to Asia, but it is really complicated because of the quarantine, and there are several destinations that we have not been able to visit yet. The trips we have made are of expatriates who, by staying at the destination, can comply with the protocols imposed.

?How do you manage visas and entry difficulties in the different countries?

Once you decide to make the trip, you must have time for the issue of visas, and more from Barcelona, because the person concerned has to travel to Madrid to do the paperwork. This has already happened to us several times on trips to the United States. For information on the entries to the different countries, with the tools I have I look for all the data, including even reference centers where PCR performed before returning to Spain, mandatory documentation, etc.  I request for all international trips the certificate of travel insurance so that, if necessary, have all the data easily both the traveler and the insurer. 

What we have achieved is that the traveler understands that now you can not travel as before and that even the trip he made to a country two months ago now may not be possible to have changed the restrictions.

Are you using any ‘digital health’ platform or are you considering implementing an app in your company?

For several years we have had an agreement with a service provider that gives us support during our relocations. With them we have enabled an application that allows us to review and consult in real time and with all the updates different points, both health and safety. We are also planning, together with Occupational Risks, to organize some internal action, such as a webinar, to inform about vaccination issues, procedures or the covid passport that has been recently approved in Brussels.