What Is Travel Risk Management, and Why Does It Matter?
For humanitarian, faith-based and academic organisations, travel is often essential to the mission. It connects people with communities, facilitates outreach, supports education, and enables service in vulnerable or remote locations. But with that mission comes a duty to protect the safety and wellbeing of those who travel on your behalf.
Travel risk management is the process of identifying, assessing and addressing the risks linked to organisational travel. Whether someone is travelling across the US or to another continent, organisations have a legal and moral responsibility to plan and support that journey with care.
Understanding the Risks
Today’s travel environment is more volatile than ever. Threats can come from:
- Political unrest or civil conflict
- Criminal activity or socio-economic instability
- Public health outbreaks and disease
- Natural disasters and extreme weather
- Visa changes or new entry requirements
- Cybersecurity threats while travelling
- Inadequate infrastructure in remote areas
For faith-based and humanitarian groups, who often travel to under-resourced regions or in times of crisis, these risks are especially significant. Academic institutions, too, face similar challenges when coordinating fieldwork, study abroad or faculty research programmes.
A Shift in Travel Mindsets
The pandemic made clear how quickly travel conditions can shift. Yet many organisations still feel underprepared. In fact, a global survey1 of over 200 organisations found that just 24 percent believed they had a strong Travel Risk Management programme in place.
Duty of care is no longer just about emergency contacts or insurance coverage. It is about creating a system that helps you anticipate risk, act quickly, and support your travellers throughout their journey.
What Does Good Travel Risk Management Look Like?
An effective Travel Risk Management programme combines planning, technology and real-time support. It typically includes:
- Destination risk assessments before each trip
- Traveller-specific planning (e.g. medical, gender, age, or experience factors)
- Policy enforcement with built-in approval processes
- Real-time updates for changing conditions
- Tracking and communication tools to stay connected with travellers
- 24/7 emergency support and escalation routes
These elements ensure that staff, volunteers and students can travel safely and confidently, while leaders remain informed and prepared to respond.
How to Get Started: Practical Steps to Strengthen Duty of Care
If you are looking to enhance your organisation’s approach to travel safety, consider these five steps:
Assess Where You Are
Begin with a gap analysis. What policies, tools and procedures are already in place? Who is responsible for managing travel risk? Are there clear escalation routes if something goes wrong?
Tools like Key Travel’s RiskReady™ self-assessment framework can help you map your current level of readiness against ISO31030:2021, a global standard for travel risk management and identify areas for improvement.
Develop or Update Your Travel Policy
Ensure your travel policy includes guidance on:
- Pre-trip planning and approvals
- Destination-specific risk thresholds
- Traveller responsibilities
- Emergency response contacts
- Insurance coverage and incident reporting
Your policy should be clear, accessible, and tailored to the types of travel your organisation supports.
Improve Traveller Preparation
Provide travellers with access to:
- Pre-travel briefings
- Up-to-date health and security advice
- Risk assessments for their destination
- Clear expectations about behaviour, reporting, and contingency planning
This helps travellers feel supported and promotes informed decision-making.
Implement Real-Time Tools
Technology can play a critical role. Platforms like KT Safety integrate risk intelligence, live destination alerts, itinerary tracking, and traveller communication tools. This allows organisations to monitor trips in progress, contact travellers during incidents, and respond quickly when needed.
Test and Review Your Response Plan
Run scenario-based simulations or tabletop exercises to ensure your team knows how to respond to a crisis. These do not need to be complicated, a mock case of a delayed visa or sudden storm alert can be enough to test your internal processes.
Regular reviews also help ensure your risk management strategy evolves with the needs of your organisation and your travellers.
Key Travel’s Tools to Support You
Key Travel has developed several services specifically for the non-profit and academic sectors to help support duty of care:
RiskReady™
A structured, standards-based self-assessment and improvement framework, created in partnership with AvISO and the Travel Risk Academy. It helps organisations benchmark their travel risk management approach against ISO31030 and develop practical action plans.
KT Safety
A comprehensive platform that includes:
- Integrated destination risk assessments
- Traveller tracking with live maps and GPS-enabled check-ins
- Automated risk alerts and travel incident updates
- Policy enforcement and booking controls
- KT Mobile App integrating all elements of a trip into one itinerary. Travellers receive up-to-date destination risk assessments and alerts with updates 7 days before travel, during the 7 days until travel, and in-trip.
- 24/7 emergency response support
These tools are designed to work together, so organisations can manage risk proactively without adding unnecessary complexity.
Travel with Confidence and Care
Faith-based, humanitarian and academic organisations travel not for profit, but for purpose. Whether delivering aid, providing education, or supporting ministry, your people are serving others and that makes their safety even more important.
A strong travel risk management programme is not about fear. It is about stewardship. It is a way to honour your responsibility to those who serve your mission, by ensuring they are prepared, protected and supported wherever their work takes them.
Additional Resource Links:
Key Travel: Travel Risk Management
RiskReady™ & ISO31030:2021 Travel risk management — Guidance for organizations
Case Study: Getting Volunteers Home Safe
Case Study: Supporting customers during a travel crisis