Three years after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, is today's traveler safer?
“That's the wrong question,” said former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir, who now runs a corporate security consulting firm. “Yes, we are (safer), but are we safe? No.”
Today's corporate travelers, he said, are still dwelling on the traditional security concerns— “everything from hijackings to emergency response in foreign countries to places to avoid, and teaching people awareness.”
Although Safir is not sure airports are any safer from terrorism, security barriers there may have reduced theft.
It should be obvious to any traveler, for instance, that the hit-and-run laptop thieves who once preyed on people who left their belongings out of sight at scanning checkpoints have a harder time now that only passengers can head for the gate.
Safir, whose company (www.safirrosetti.com) also provides security and planning information to the lodging industry, is more positive about that side of the travel business. Increased measures are in place at many hotels, he said.
The industry “wants its customers to feel secure but they don't want them to feel alarmed,” he said. As a result, the security measures are often not visible.
One positive development, he said, is that front desk clerks at hotels now usually ask for a photo ID when a guest requests a replacement room key.
Bruce McIndoe, chief executive of iJet Travel Risk Management (www.ijet.com), which provides information on safety and other travel problems to subscribing businesses and individuals, said travel today is in some ways safer than it was three years ago.
“There's more scrutiny around air transport,” he said, and hotels in high-risk areas have upgraded their protections.
“But there also huge gaps,” McIndoe said. “On balance, maybe we're marginally safer.”
He said he believes that until about nine months ago, many companies and international travelers thought their routine business would not take them near hot spots. Now they are having second thoughts.
Incidents like subway bombings and other violence in the former Soviet Union and problems in other major world destinations have helped stoke travelers' fears, he said.
“There is now a certain level of uneasiness that has entered the travel psyche,” he added.
Companies are more aware of the standard of care they must provide for their employees and also have worries about liability, McIndoe said.
In other travel news:
- The number of flights being operated worldwide is once again at a level not seen since the attacks of 9/11, according to a survey made by flight information publisher OAG. Worldwide seat capacity is up 3 percent over 2001. In the United States, the number of domestic flights rose 12 percent in September from a year earlier, and the number of available seats increased by 13 percent.
- Virgin Atlantic says it is the first airline to offer a double bed in flight. The carrier's Boeing 747-400 aircraft have been fitted with doubles on the lower deck for first-class travelers. They are actually side-by-side single seats that convert to beds, and a middle partition can be removed to turn the space into a double.
