Helping out with your safety overseas

Safety overseas has always been an issue for business travelers, especially those touching down at unfamiliar and dangerous destinations. Now private firms are helping out.

In the past year, British consular officials were asked to help out their citizens on 91,000 separate occasions, according to the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
Meanwhile, the U.S. State Department says that about 6,000 U.S. citizens die overseas every year.
"Car accidents, diving into swimming pools and excessive alcohol consumption -- which often results in falls from hotel balconies -- are the most common causes of death," says Mark Hide of Planetwise, a UK company that offers safety courses to business travelers.
Often, business travelers are too busy with office work before they travel to think about what they would do in an emergency.
This has prompted the private sector to begin teaching overseas travel skills.
"These services are quite profitable, especially since a number of attacks has occurred around the globe," says Hide, whose clients include small businesses exporting overseas.
"This market is expected to expand, since business travelers are more mobile than ever before."
Planetwise offers first aid skills and confidence building exercises. The company believes that if people are more able to cope with the rigors of travel, they will be able to get on with their work.
"Businesses have a duty to look after their staff," Hide says.
"The world is more dangerous, business people travel more, but they are not aware of the dangers. People think Europe is safe, but Rome is the worst city in Europe to travel to -- and dangers make trips less productive."
The lessons are also corporate briefings, so they can reiterate to business travelers their corporate travel policies and how the employer can help in an emergency -- or in other cases -- cannot help.
Overcoat Limited, like Planetwise, also offers training for business travelers. Its services include safe accommodation, transport and food, as well as crime and data management. In addition, it has crime investigators on call 24-hours a day.
Another company, South Africa's Red24, is offering 24-hour security advice if you feel you are in danger.
Red24's services cover a wide range of risky situations, such as kidnapping, safety on the roads, civil unrest and politics. Red24 can also be accessed via its Web site, phone, fax and e-mail.
"There are more terrorist acts today, many of which are linked to religion; from the Bali bombing and the September 11, 2001 attacks, you will see that the world order has changed," Hide says.
And if you need a translator to telephone a doctor, reserve a restaurant table or hotel room, then another firm -- Pass the Phone, based in Spain -- will provide you with the instructions you need. It can even call the person you want to talk on your behalf.