Firms forewarn travelers of risks
By Jim Krane
Associated Press
NEW YORK — For Americans who travel abroad, the world looks like a more menacing place.
Associated Press
Since Sept. 11, a swarm of travel intelligence services and executive tracking programs have emerged, capitalizing on the fear of things foreign. Most aim to inform business junketeers about the potential for disease, delays and danger.
Travel security services emerging J. Malcolm Preston, front, and Peter Morse work at iJet Travel Intelligence in Annapolis, Md. The company claims to monitor 5,000 information sources and issues travel warnings, sometimes ahead of the U.S. State Department.
Business, they say, has been vigorous.
"We're adding double the number of clients per month than we were before Sept. 11," said Tim Daniel, chief operating officer of International SOS Assistance Inc. "There's a real desire to find out what the heck is going on."
International SOS, based in Philadelphia and London, had mainly been known as the company that evacuates executives from war zones.
Now, it e-mails clients daily "situation updates" and offers a locator service to track business travelers as they trot the globe. The company counts PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Nortel Networks Corp. and Citigroup among its clients.
Another travel security company is Control Risks Group, a company better known for sending ex-soldiers to extract kidnapped executives. It now sells travel warnings — and updates them when you synchronize your Palm handheld organizer.
A new company called iJET Travel Intelligence — formed by former American, British, South African and Russian intelligence officers — touts a computer network based on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's.
Like the CIA, the Annapolis, Md.-based company monitors thousands of information sources for hints of future mayhem, said Rick Lurie, iJET's vice president for intelligence operations.
But iJET's intelligence isn't kept secret. For as little as $25, iJET will zap it to your cell phone or BlackBerry.
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The company prides itself on pre-empting the U.S. State Department's advisories.
Last summer, the company warned travelers to South Africa to expect violent demonstrations during a United Nations conference on race. Demonstrations occurred, but were mostly peaceful.
"We told people weeks in advance," said Lurie, who used to work at the U.S. National Security Agency. "The State Department reported its warning the day of the conference."
The field is packed with similar vendors.
Travel manager Rosenbluth International offers a traveler locator service similar to that of International SOS.
Companies can buy intelligence from vendors such as Kroll Inc., Pinkerton Global Intelligence Services, IntelCenter.com, Stratfor .com and IntelGo.com.
The surge in security products parallels the leap in warnings released by the State Department, the FBI, Attorney General John Ashcroft and Director of Homeland Security Tom Ridge.
When five people — including two Americans — died in a grenade attack on a church in Pakistan, the State Department issued a "worldwide caution." The March 17 bulletin warned against further attacks on U.S. travelers, asking Americans to avoid places where other Americans congregate.
Has the world really grown more dangerous?
"That's probably fair to say," said State Department spokesman Edward Dickens. "In certain places, under certain circumstances, Americans are a particular target. But it was dangerous in places and at times before Sept. 11."
But Kevin Mitchell, chairman of the Business Travel Coalition, which advocates travel-friendly public policy, said the U.S. government and security companies have a "vested interest" in warning Americans of risks abroad, even if that means erring on the side of caution.
The world "isn't more dangerous if you look at it from a statistical standpoint," Mitchell said.
For security companies, warning Americans is more than a vested interest. It's a livelihood.
Some may take their jobs too far. For instance, iJET's Lurie described Spain, a country whose streets are arguably safer than those in the United States, as a "terrorist hotbed."
"We've issued a dozen alerts about Spain," Lurie said.
Spain does suffer occasional bombings by Basque insurgents. But few consider the country unsafe. The State Department says the 1 million yearly American visitors haven't been targeted, but should still watch out — mainly for pickpockets.
In most countries, the situation is similar. Corporate espionage, street crime and traffic wrecks are bigger worries, said Thomas Nulty, president of Navigant International, a corporate travel management company.
Travelers may be better off directly calling the State Department desk for the appropriate country, said Michael Guidry, president of the Guidry Group, a Houston-based security consultancy.
"If you look at a couple of magazines and know a couple of magic numbers in Washington, you can get all that information for free," said Guidry, who counts the White House and organizers of the Olympic Games among his clients.
Guidry said the best technology solution he has ever come across was in 1985, when he used the old-fashioned shortwave radio to let worried corporate leaders communicate with executives stuck in earthquake-shattered Mexico City.
"We're a technology kind of company," Guidry said. "But I'm not going to lie. I think a lot of this stuff is more hype than any good."
