Corporate travel managers are facing mounting pressure to protect employees from a widening range of global disruptions as geopolitical instability, cyber threats, extreme weather, and supply chain breakdowns intensify travel risks in 2026.
Stephan Baars, CEO of BCD, said travel buyers are increasingly being judged not only on cost control, but also on how effectively they protect travellers during crises and operational disruptions.
The discussion highlighted how corporate travel programmes are becoming more difficult to manage as companies attempt to balance lower travel costs, traveller safety, faster communication, and uninterrupted mobility across volatile operating conditions.
“If you see the geopolitical situation, the extreme weather, cyber data threats, and supply chain disruptions, that's a lot for travel buyers to handle,” Baars said.
According to Baars, many organisations are moving away from reactive crisis response systems towards continuous monitoring and coordinated incident management designed to identify risks earlier and respond faster.
“To meet the duty of care and protect an organisation's most important assets, and I'm talking about the people here, is what risk management is all about,” he said.
The interview also examined how companies are restructuring travel operations around integrated systems that combine traveller tracking, live incident monitoring, communication tools, and emergency coordination into a single operational process. He added that fragmented systems and siloed workflows are becoming less effective as global incidents become more unpredictable and interconnected.
“Our experience is that eight out of 10 travel buyers today have integrated the systems, have stopped working in silos, and with that, are effective in their travel management risk system,” he said.
The discussion focused heavily on the balance between automation and human judgement during crisis situations.
According to Baars, automated systems are increasingly used to monitor global events, process large volumes of data, identify emerging disruptions, and support faster response times. At the same time, he argued human judgement remains critical when assessing risks and deciding how companies should respond during emergencies.
“It needs to be a balance, because human beings need to assess the situation and the information that we have received through automated processes and take the right actions,” Baars said.
He added that companies failing to modernise traveller protection systems risk slower emergency response, weaker traveller confidence, and greater operational disruption during global crises.
