One of the core commitments of the Savoya blog is keeping travelers and those who support them informed about meaningful trends and changes in the travel industry. That means going beyond logistics to address the security and risk environment that executive travel actually operates within.
Recently, Aon, a leading global professional services firm, released the 2018 update to its annual Risk Map report, in partnership with The Risk Advisory Group and Continuum Economics. Now in its 12th year, the report provides a comprehensive baseline on political risk, terrorism, and social unrest that every travel coordinator supporting international travelers should be familiar with.
Here are the key findings along with our perspective on their implications.
The headline finding from Aon's 2018 Risk Map is sobering. Henry Wilkinson, Head of Intelligence and Analysis at The Risk Advisory Group, summarizes the results as pointing to "a more unstable and dangerous world, where business-threatening geopolitical risks are becoming a much greater concern."
For the third consecutive year, Aon increased risk ratings for more countries than it reduced: 17 countries received higher ratings, while only six saw reductions.
Scott Bolton, Aon's Director of Crisis Management, attributes this trend to the deterioration of governance in already challenged regions and the increasingly combative stance governments are taking. Populist governments, cross-border conflict, and domestic dissent are all contributing to widening zones of political violence.
What makes this particularly relevant for travel coordinators is that elevated risk profiles are not limited to developing or emerging markets. They are increasing across the board, including in regions where executives may previously have traveled without significant security planning.
The Political Risk section highlights growing concern around trade policy instability and the ways geopolitical tensions can disrupt supply chains. For companies with international operations and executives traveling to support those operations, this creates both direct travel risk and broader business continuity concerns.
Currency volatility and economic instability in certain markets continue to create unpredictable environments for business travel. Travel coordinators supporting executives in these markets should factor local economic conditions into their contingency planning.
Risk conditions change faster than annual reports can track. Travel coordinators and security teams should supplement the Aon report with current intelligence sources that provide real-time updates, particularly for executives traveling to higher-risk regions.
One of the highest-risk moments in any executive's international itinerary is ground transportation, particularly in unfamiliar cities, late at night, or during periods of civil unrest. The solution is not to avoid travel; it is to work with vetted ground transportation partners whose drivers are screened, trained, and integrated with your security protocols.
At Savoya, every chauffeur in our network undergoes rigorous background checks and must meet clear operational standards before transporting any executive. That baseline of trust matters most when the broader environment is uncertain.
If your organization's duty-of-care policies have not been reviewed in the past year, the Aon report is a strong prompt to do so. Policies that made sense in a more stable global environment may not account for the current risk landscape, particularly around travel to newly elevated-risk markets.
Executives often underestimate travel risk because they are focused on the business objective, not the environment around it. Travel coordinators play a critical role in surfacing relevant risk information and helping executives make informed decisions about where, when, and how to travel.
The Aon 2018 Risk Map reinforces what many in the industry already sense: the global travel environment is becoming more complex, and the consequences of inadequate preparation are growing. Travel coordinators who stay ahead of this complexity through better intelligence, stronger vendor relationships, and tighter security integration are the ones who protect their executives and their organizations most effectively.
The Aon Risk Map is an annual report published by Aon in partnership with The Risk Advisory Group and Continuum Economics. It assesses political violence risk and political risk across countries worldwide, providing travel professionals and risk managers with a baseline for evaluating where the greatest threats exist.
The 2018 report found that overall political violence risk increased worldwide for the third consecutive year. Seventeen countries received elevated risk ratings while only six saw improvements. Notably, risk increases were not confined to developing markets but extended to regions previously considered stable.
The report should serve as a starting point for pre-trip risk assessment, particularly for executives traveling internationally. Coordinators should supplement it with real-time intelligence sources, review itineraries against affected regions, and work with vetted ground transportation and security partners in high-risk markets.
Ground transportation is one of the most exposed moments in any executive's itinerary. Executives in unfamiliar cities, traveling to or from airports, or moving through areas with civil unrest face heightened risk without vetted drivers and secure routing protocols. Professional executive car services mitigate this risk through driver screening, trip monitoring, and security integration.
Duty-of-care policies should be reviewed at least annually and updated whenever a significant change in the global risk environment occurs. Annual reports such as the Aon Risk Map provide a useful trigger for these reviews, but real-time intelligence should inform ongoing policy adjustments.
Political violence risk covers threats such as terrorism, civil unrest, and armed conflict that can directly harm travelers. Political risk covers broader instability factors such as trade disruption, government intervention, and currency volatility that affect business operations and travel environments without necessarily resulting in physical danger.
Real-time visibility, proactive communication, and responsive support. You need to see where the car is, get updates without asking, and reach someone immediately when something changes. Savoya delivers all three from one managed platform.
Without flight tracking, a chauffeur may arrive at the originally scheduled time and miss a delayed executive entirely. Savoya tracks the aircraft with ADS-B data and resets the pickup to actual wheels-down, so the car is there when your principal walks out.
A managed service actively monitors every trip, intervenes when something goes wrong, and coordinates between driver and client. An unmanaged service connects you to a driver and leaves the rest to chance. The difference is most visible during a disruption, a flight delay, a no-show, a last-minute change.
Ask for their trip-completion rate, their driver-certification process, and their support availability, and ask for references from similar clients. Savoya completes 99.8% of trips without issue and is trusted by 61% of the Fortune 100.
Most trace back to three gaps: no real-time monitoring, weak communication, and inconsistent driver standards. Without proactive oversight, a small issue becomes a major disruption. Savoya's managed model closes all three with LiveOps trip monitoring, automated notifications, and the 14-point Chauffeur Vetting System.
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