Staying safe and healthy while travelling for business has never been more important.
It doesn’t matter if this is your first business trip or your hundredth, whether you’re travelling solo or with a group of colleagues – travelling during a pandemic is never going to be stress-free.
Although you might still be booking your trip in the same way as before, they’ll be lots more safety precautions taken by perhaps your company, and by travel companies the world over.
Your organisation should have a robust plan in place deeming what permissible travel is and how to go about booking a trip, but what preparations can you make for your trip?
There are plenty of things you can do to help reduce travel anxiety during this time:

Pre-trip planning
For many travellers, anxiety starts way before they’re travelling – particularly if you’re visiting a brand new destination. With new COVID restrictions cropping up everywhere, and restrictions differing regionally instead of nationally, it’s easy to see why you might be anxious.
The best way to lessen anxiety is to equip yourself with as much knowledge as possible.
- where are you staying?
- what can you expect from your hotel?
- is your flight direct?
- what safety precautions are your airports taking?
Just last week, Heathrow airport announced it had introduced rapid COVID testing capabilities for passengers travelling from London Heathrow to Hong Kong. The rapid tests will give results within just one hour.
Research your airport and airline. What COVID precautions are they taking? Knowing there are processes in place, and understanding what those safety measures are can help you feel prepared and less worried about your impending trip.
We’re more digitally connected than ever before, so you should think about utilising your smartphone more. Almost half (48%) of U.S travellers use their mobile phones to plan, book and research their business trip. We’re surprised it’s not higher.
Your smartphone offers you the chance to research to your heart’s content. You can virtually visit your hotel or the town you’re travelling to, just by using the street view on Google Maps.
There are many apps built specifically to help make your journey the best it can be. Check out of these three apps making travel safer and more enjoyable.
Keeping safe while travelling
When the day of your business trip arrives, you will already know your travel arrangements, but you should stay in constant contact with your travel manager anyway.
If your travel manager has booked all your aspects of your trip – accommodation, flights, transfers etc. They’re the best person to reach out to if you have any questions.
Using a SaaS platform to manage your ground travel can significantly reduce stress when it comes to getting from point a to point b.
Knowing your drivers are vetted and licenced is a worry that doesn’t even have to enter your mind; it’s one less thing to think about. Not only can you book ground travel with a tap of a button, but you can select the type of ground travel you require – choose from luxury executive cars to your classic black cabs.
Vetted drivers mean you don’t have to worry about COVID precautions, robust health and safety processes have been put in place with all ground travel suppliers, so you can trust them.
With a SaaS ground travel platform, your travel manager can keep tabs on your journeys, so they know precisely where each travelling employee is at any given time.
What should you do when you reach your destination?
Travelling is exhausting, and getting your body into a new sleep cycle can be the furthest thing from your mind when you’d have subpar sleep.
Sleep Foundation says you should try and stay awake until late evening before succumbing to sleep deprivation. If you must nap, don’t nap for more than two hours and set the alarm to ensure you don’t oversleep.
Handy tip: Sleep Foundation also recommends setting your watch to the destination’s time zone as soon as you board your plane.
When you get to your final destination, eat when the locals eat, sleep when they sleep. The quicker your body gets used to its new cycle, the fresher you’ll feel and the quicker you’ll be ready to attend your business meeting and get your trip started.
Don’t forget to keep open communication between you and your travel manager. They’ll be the best person to update you if restrictions come into play in the area you’re staying.
You can always keep an eye on the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, for the latest coronavirus information.
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