Travelers Can Help Ensure Their Safety With Pre-Trip Planning

Insurance broker Leslie Saunders knew she was violating her personal safety code when she wore a fur coat on the Paris subway to go to the Louvre on a recent trip.

“I was followed out of the Metro,” Saunders recalls. “I made sure I stayed with a crowd after that, but I was very much aware of what I looked like. I stuck out as an American.”

Blending in and keeping a low profile is rule No. 1 when traveling overseas, according to security experts and government agents who have created an industry from proffering advice to business travelers and their employers on how to remain safe and secure on the road.

More Americans are going on business trips than at any time in history. And to hear the experts discuss it, sophisticated criminals are tracking business travelers’ every move, ready to pounce at the first sign they’ve dropped their guard.

Most business travelers will never become victims of a crime. Nevertheless, business travelers can take steps to avoid becoming targets, yet it is often the last thing on their agendas. Carrying out the business task at hand in a different environment is stressful enough; taking time to research the safety of your hotel’s neighborhood may not be a priority.

“The fact of the matter is that while travelers think about safety maybe five minutes during a trip-- and those five minutes occur when they’re in a parking lot and it’s dark and they hear footsteps--the bad guys think about their vulnerability all the time,” says Terry Riley, a Santa Cruz-based psychologist and travel security consultant.

And when things do go wrong, such as being robbed or assaulted on the street or in your hotel room, a lack of planning and general awareness are usually contributing factors.

Take the cell phone, for instance. In one respect, having a cell phone handy is an added measure of security not available to mobile people even five years ago. But the cell phone also can put the business traveler in what Riley calls “a fantasy world.”

“They’re not paying attention to what’s going on around them, they’re preoccupied,” Riley says. “That happens a lot to travelers who have a lot of things on their minds.”

Riley conducts workshops for middle-level managers who travel frequently on business. He is the author of the self-published “Travel Can Be Murder: A Business Traveler’s Guide to Personal Safety.”

But he isn’t alone in pounding the drum on the potential for business travelers becoming crime victims. The State Department, FBI and other government agencies and security experts have devised elaborate programs to help businesspeople avoid pitfalls.

Among the most useful for American business travelers is the Overseas Security Advisory Council, which is coordinated by the State Department and composed of U.S. corporate security directors and other security experts. The group was created to exchange information between the federal government and the private sector and today provides a welter of security material to help U.S. businesses.

The organization provides unclassified “threat” information about foreign locales, including the level of street crime, potential for anti-American terrorist activity and the current political situation, State Department spokeswoman Jane Bekay says.

One of the best things that the overseas business traveler can do, particularly if heading to a developing nation or a political hot spot, is to contact the U.S. Embassy or Consulate, Bekay says. Having the embassy know that you’re in the country makes it less complicated should a problem occur, from an assault or a volatile political situation that would require evacuating the country.

“The most important thing is . . . find out about that place [beforehand],” Riley advises.

Riley did just that by planning for a recent trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He contacted the regional security officer, or RSO, at the U.S. Embassy there and faxed information about himself: his passport number, emergency contact phone number, his itinerary and lodgings and his photo. He also added that he would be calling in a few weeks to get his advice on what to watch out for once he arrived.

“He called me back that evening,” Riley says.

The RSO warned him of a prevalent street crime at the time: kids on motorbikes who zip up to inattentive pedestrians and snatch their handbags.

He also gave Riley tips on shuttling between the airport, his hotel and his appointments.

But don’t stop at government agencies.

“Business travelers have a leg up in not only having the State Department to go to, but because they are traveling on business, that means they have some contact there. I don’t think it’s at all inappropriate to ask . . . where would they stay, or where’s a safe neighborhood,” Riley says.

But the key point to remember is that you alone are responsible for your safety. It’s up to you to learn about the locale, stay alert, be suspicious of everyone and use common sense.

“The people I talk to are usually savvy travelers; they’ve been around the block a few times. But it doesn’t make them all that much safer,” Riley saus. “They are more likely to know where to get the most frequent-flier miles than they are to know about how safe their hotel is.”

Saunders, who owns an insurance brokerage in Tampa, Fla., and travels frequently on business, says women in particular have to speak up, ask their employers and do the necessary research on their destination.

“Women don’t want to ask because they don’t want to be construed as asking for special treatment,” she says. “But safety is different.”

One thing Saunders routinely does is park in the same row at Tampa International Airport, so her husband can tell authorities one place to look if anything happens.

“I always try to leave a very specific trail,” Saunders says.

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Safety First

* Any U.S.-owned company doing business overseas should consider registering with the Overseas Security Advisory Council. OSAC, under the aegis of the State Department, has developed an electronic database about security-related incidents and threats overseas that is available to businesses.

The council also offers several publications, including its “Personal Security Guidelines for the American Business Traveler Overseas,” an excellent advice primer on how to remain safe and what to do if an emergency or crime should occur.

* The National Counterintelligence Center, a federal agency composed of various government security organizations including the CIA and the FBI, has a practical booklet available free of charge. Called “Your Passport to a Safe Trip Abroad,” the pocket-size guide is filled with checklists and quick tips on staying safe and includes government phone numbers and other information, such as what to do if you are arrested or taken hostage overseas.

For More Information

* Overseas Security Advisory Council

Bureau of Diplomatic Security

U.S. Department of State

Washington, DC 20522-1003

Phone: (202) 663-0533

Fax: (202) 663-0868

e-mail: osac@dsmail.state.gov

Or visit the OSAC Web site at https://www.ds.state.gov/osac

* National Counterintelligence Center

Room 3W01, NHB

Washington, DC 20505

Phone: (703) 874-4115

Web site: https://www.nacic.gov

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The Times is interested in hearing about your experiences as a business traveler and as someone doing business in the international marketplace. Please contact us at global.savvy@latimes.com.