People travelling on business tend to have more of a she’ll be right attitude than those on holiday, the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Conference was told on August 23.
Stephen Scott, assistant secretary, consular policy branch with the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia, says that companies often deal to many of the practical aspects of the journey for their travellers, and many decisions that are out of the of individuals’ hands. ‘Often at a personal level business travellers have a lower level of engagement and are less likely to accept personal responsibility while travelling. Most companies are mindful for their travellers’ safety but that does not release the traveller from taking responsibility.’
He says that encouraging business travellers to access travel advice and to register their travel plans is ‘a challenge.’ They are far less likely than leisure travellers to do so. ‘Business travellers tell us they don’t feel it is necessary because they travel regularly to these places, they know them well and they feel that they are safe. Complacency can be very dangerous.’
He says that during the Mumbai terrorist attacks there were 86 Australian travellers in the vicinity of the trouble and only two had registered with the department. ‘We found those two easily and quickly, but the other 84 were much harder to find. That meant a lot of heartache for family and friends which could have been avoided.’

The Asia Pacific region, and Australia in particular, needs to stop over reacting to the United States’ problems and get on with business – including corporate travel - finance and economics commentator Michael Pascoe told the National Business Travel Association (NBTA) Conference in Melbourne. ‘Australia’s economy had 2.7% growth last year, it wasn’t even a recession just a mild slowdown. So why are so many businesses scared and why did business travel in Australia fall away like the rest of the world? It is because we have been bombarded in the last couple of years by scary headlines, we’ve been told nothing but doom and gloom.
‘Unfortunately our media is American-centric, even our view of China is American-centric.  We’ve all heard about the threat of the double dip recession. It’s not ours, so who cares. But already it is having an effect on global travel.’ (See the October issue of TRAVELinc for the full story.)