Many of these terrible events are not preventable, but many are. In an increasingly uncertain world, there are two primary threats to your safety:
- Dangers in transit. Anything from a train derailment to a plane crash falls under this broad category. The airline passengers who perished in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were casualties of an in-transit attack, because they died while traveling from one place to another. When travelers talk about how dangerous travel is, they are typically thinking of the in-transit perils.
- Dangers at your destination. A hotel fire or a bombing incident would fall under this general category. A good example is the 2002 terrorist bombing on the island of Bali that claimed the lives of nearly 200 people, many of them tourists. When most people talk about travel safety, they usually aren't taking these important hazards into consideration. But they should.
I'm drawing the distinction here between in-transit and at-your-destination dangers because each hazard must be dealt with in a different way. Each requires its own strategy.
But before we get to that, let's review a few statistics on security. If you're flying, you'll take comfort in the fact that in 2002, there were no commercial airline accidents with fatalities in the United States, according to the Web site Airsafe.com. You stand a 0.00003% chance of getting killed in a plane wreck, if the National Transportation Safety Board is to be believed. Train travel is relatively safe, too — there's less than one fatality per million passenger miles, according to Amtrak.
In fact, when it comes to travel, one of the great mysteries isn't in-transit safety, but at-your-destination safety. What are the odds of your room getting burglarized? Of you becoming a target of anti-American violence? We don't have any hard statistics, just sketchy ideas and anecdotal evidence.
The U.S. State Department issues travel warnings from time to time, but it doesn't back them up with any meaningful numbers. So you don't really know what the odds are that your next business meeting will turn into a hostage crisis. What's especially troubling is the vague nature of the warnings issued. A recent advisory cautioned, "There is a possibility that American citizens may be targeted for kidnapping or assassination." But where? The government wouldn't say.
No wonder experienced travelers pay less attention to in-transit hazards — after all, traveling is a calculated risk — and instead zero in on safety at their intended destination. That's where there's so much uncertainty.
Here's how road warriors deal with that ambiguity and the tools they're using to cope with it. These strategies could help you.
- Switching
destinations. Worried that New York might become a
terrorist target during a planned spring meeting, John Warren
opted to travel to West Virginia instead. The Raleigh, N.C.,
sales manager says that the risk of any possible fallout in
the Big Apple over U.S. military action in Iraq made him pick
a closer, more familiar place, "even though the risk of
driving is greater than flying."
Tip: Look beyond the U.S. government's official line for data on travel security. The Canadian government offers country-specific travel reports. So does the Australian government.
- Asking
more questions. Nowadays, you can't leave anything to
chance, according to corporate meeting planners like Joan
Eisenstodt. "One can't be too cautious or concerned," she
says. How do you go about screening a destination for safety?
"When we do select hotels or conference centers for client
meetings, we ask even more questions than we did before about
safety," she explains. "We incorporate information into
facility contracts that deals with safety and with issues
around terminating meetings if there is war or if there are
acts of terrorism."
Tip: One place to find answers is in a security advisory service such as iJET Travel Intelligence, which uses techniques developed by government intelligence agencies to monitor your itinerary for you. Another service, IntelliGuide, offers daily security updates and destination-related briefings.
- Taking
extra precautions. It always makes sense to be on your
guard while you're away, to plan for the possibility that
something might go wrong. For Inga Smith, a photographer from
Columbus, Ohio, who is traveling to Greece in 2003, it means
taking out travel insurance. For Kenneth Rogers, a teacher
from Coventry, R.I., it means setting up a password system so
that in case he's kidnapped while overseas, his relatives will
be able to authenticate his messages.
Tip: Two good places to shop for insurance are Insure.com and WorldTravelCenter.com. Looking for advice on how to prepare for a kidnapping or robbery on the road? Check out security expert Terry Riley's Web site, Errtravel.
Don't forget the most important — and perhaps most ignored — ingredient to a safe trip: common sense.
Noel Ward, a publishing consultant from Amherst, N.H., believes in keeping a low profile on the road. "I tend to stay in very ordinary hotels rather than the big brand-name glitzy palaces," he says. "I figure it not only saves money, but that terrorists are more likely to attack a big fancy property than the kinds of places I stay." (I'll have more on keeping a low profile and other tricks from experienced business travelers in a future column.)
Travel isn't completely safe, and never will be. But with a few precautions you can make it safer by addressing some of the overlooked hazards at your destination.
Christopher Elliott is the editor of Elliott's E-mail, a free weekly newsletter for travelers, and the publisher of Triprights.com, a site about travel rights. You can e-mail him or visit his Web site.