Business or holiday travel
has never been easier, or
more dangerous.
By Ben Hockman
I
Colombia based security expert and consultant for a leading global risk management firm, Ben
Hockman, shows how staying safe is all a matter of being smart
14
hav e got off plenty of planes in
hotspots around the world, particularly in Latin and Central America
and I never feel quite as uneasy as I
do in Caracas.
The sultry Venezuelan Capital is
a witches’ brew of simmering apathy,
chaos, resentment and exhaustion,
making it one of the world’s most
dangerous cities, with an estimated
murder rate of 122 in every 100,000
citizens. Like so many far-flung destinations, it´s actually a beautiful city.
Mountainous, near the sea and sunny all year round. Not
that I ever have any time to enjoy it!
Every business traveller has their own “Caracas”; that
particular corner of the world that you know reasonably
well and yet where the feeling of uneasiness that hits when
you touch down never leaves you.
The endless search for alpha takes business into ever
more obscure, dangerous reaches of the planet, where the
lure of a first-mover advantage can outweigh concerns for
personal safety. Cheaper air travel has also never made it
easier to hop on a plane to close a deal and spending on
business travel will rise about seven per cent this year, to
roughly USD1.18 trillion, according to the Global Business