C MPASS - Diversity Travel€¦ · C MPASSCHARITY TOP CHARITY TRAVEL PROCUREMENT TIPS Identify and conquer the most common charity travel procurement challenges SALVATION ARMY INTERNATIONAL

C MPASSCHARITY

TOP CHARITY TRAVEL PROCUREMENT TIPS

Identify and conquer the most common charity travel

procurement challenges

SALVATION ARMY INTERNATIONAL HQ

Discover how Salvation Army International achieved

total travel data control

ACHIEVING AGILEDUTY OF CARE

Find out how to keep travellers happy when

things get tough

It’s my absolute pleasure to welcome you to this, the first edition of Charity Compass magazine.

We have created Charity Compass to offer the charity, humanitarian and not-for-profit sectors an insight into

charity travel management; providing news, views, tips and advice for those in travel procurement,

bookers, travel managers, aid workers, volunteers and everyone in between.

We’ve tapped the expertise within Diversity, as well as that of our clients and other experts in the sector to bring you what I hope you’ll find to be an interesting

and entertaining magazine.

As well as finding out more about the Diversity Travel family in our ‘Meet the Team’ articles, look out for

our fascinating interviews with Angela Gorman, CEO of Life for African Mothers; Carolyn Pearson, the

pioneering female traveller safety expert and Mark Edwards, Travel Manager for the Salvation Army.

Our comment pieces cover the future of humane technology in travel, how to resolve top charity travel procurement conundrums, our long-standing history with and the many benefits of charity fares, industry

insider tips and tricks and much more.

So, without further ado, I’ll leave you to read in peace - I hope you enjoy the magazine.

ChrisChristopher Airey, managing director,

Diversity Travel.

Welcome!

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”

EDITION ONE CHARITY COMPASS 3

What’s new at Diversity Travel

Meet the team: Phil Jackson

Charity Fares - What's the story?

Technology, service & the future of travel

Top 5 charity travel conundrums

Why comparison sites aren’t always all they seem

The Diversity Travellers

Client focus: The Salvation Army

Your guide to a problem free visa application

Diversity Travel's recent charity work

The hot topic: Duty of care

Client focus: Life for African Mothers

Diversity Travel 10 year anniversary

Travelling smart, travelling safe.

Meet the team: Sarah Hart

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CONTENTS

4 CHARITY COMPASS EDITION ONE


WHAT'S NEW?We’ve seen some exciting new developments at Diversity Travel, celebrating both our

people and our clients. Let’s have a look at some of our recent highlights...

Award Wins• AM Team of the Year at the People Awards

In 2017, our Account Management team won the Account Management Team of the Year award at the People Awards, a highly-respected industry awards ceremony that recognises outstanding individuals and teams within corporate business travel management.

• TTG Business Travel Agent of the Year

There were plenty of celebrations after our very own Sarah Hart scooped the TTG Business Travel Agent of the Year award. She fought off some fierce competition at the glamorous awards ceremony hosted in central London. Sarah's win was a fitting reward for her commitment to first class service.

PromotionsPrzemek KoszkaWe proudly appointed our former head of IT, Przemek Koszka, to the board of directors as Director of Technology. The move follows an unprecedented period of expansion for our technology team, which has grown from three to twenty-four full time staff in the past three years. Przemek’s commitment to developing our technological offering has helped drive our dedication to innovation throughout the company.

Sarah HartIf receiving the TTG Business Travel Agent of the Year 2017 award wasn’t enough, Sarah has developed from an apprentice to Assistant Team Manager in just 5 years. Earning her first managerial position earlier this year, Sarah is now responsible for driving hotel bookings across the entire reservations department.

Sally Boulton A recent promotion means that Sally takes on a new role of Assistant Team Manager on the Chestnut team, servicing Save The Children International. Sally brings a wealth of travel experience to her new position.

Mission Statement & ValuesAs individuals and as a company, we live by our values. We’re delighted to announce our newly updated mission statement and company values explaining where we want to get to as a business, and the cornerstones of who we are, what we do and how we do it.

To accompany these changes, we've also launched Diversity Travel's monthly Values in Action Awards which will recognise those staff members who have gone above and beyond in demonstrating our values.

To provide travel management service of such high quality that we become

the global leader in the charity, academic and non-profit communities." ”

Our Mission

WE EMBRACE DIVERSITY AND TREAT EVERYONE WITH RESPECT AND TRUST

WE KEEP THE CUSTOMER AT THE HEART OF EVERYTHING WE DO

WE ALWAYS LOOK TO IMPROVE OUR PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND OURSELVES

WE’RE PROUD AND PASSIONATE ABOUT WHAT WE DO

Our values

We’ve been beavering away to keep you up to date on all things charity travel related on our new and improved blog. Whether it’s untangling complex travel lingo, providing thought-provoking

opinion pieces or sharing in-depth knowledge on our services, people or projects – our blog is your one-stop shop for all things charity travel – check it out at diversitytravel.com/blog

The Diversity Travel Blog...

Save up to 80% with specialist charity fares...South African Airways’ exclusive fares mean that charities can save up to 80% when booking flights via the Diversity Travel Team. These fares also offer free additional baggage on qualifying fares.

To find out more about charity fares and to see how much you could save, contact your Diversity Travel Reservations Team today.

SAVINGS OF UP TO

80%EXTENDED HOLD DEADLINES

INCREASED FLEXIBILITY

watching in Alaska; camping at Uluru; visiting Graceland.

If I had to choose a favourite, the most memorable has to be the Canadian Rockies. I loved it that much, I had to go back for seconds!

If you could give one piece of advice for travellers what would it be?Don’t leave things to chance; double check your e-tickets, passports and visas.

Also remember to re-check your flight times the day before and make sure that you arrive at the airport in plenty of time. It pays to be prepared!

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take three things, what would they be?If I had unlimited battery on my iPod, this would be an absolute must with over 14,000 songs to keep me entertained. Then some seeds to grow fruit, grapes in particular, along with a wine-making kit to use when these seeds bear fruit.

handle emergency incidents as and when they arise, responding with detailed reports to all clients so they can track their travellers.

What do you enjoy most about working within the Diversity Travel team?I've been working at Diversity Travel for almost 9 years and have really enjoyed watching how the team has grown from just a handful of people, to over 130 staff. I’m excited to see how the team transforms even further with our continued growth.

What is the best destination you have travelled to?I have been truly lucky in my time working in the travel industry to have seen some amazing places: whale

Phil Jackson, Senior Team Manager

What does your job involve?The team I manage, the Chestnut reservations team, are solely dedicated to looking after Diversity Travel’s biggest account, Save the Children.

This means that I manage a squad of highly-skilled operatives to ensure that our client gets the service they deserve. I handle emails from over 50 different country offices, allocating them to my team and ensuring we meet their demands.

I work closely with Save the Children International HQ to keep key policies and processes updated and also

Joining Diversity Travel almost 9 years ago, our Senior Team Manager, Phil Jackson has been a part of the DT journey right from the early stages.

He now heads up the Chestnut Team, managing travel reservations for Save the Children, one of the worlds leading global children’s charities.

We catch a glimpse into his role and his top tips for a stress-free travel experience...

"It pays to be prepared!” "I’m excited to see how the team transforms

even further”

Meet the team


In today’s unpredictable climate, it’s essential for charities to send workers and volunteers to important overseas causes in every corner of

the world.

The opportunities to travel to previously unreachable environments change all the time, so international travel is a key element of a lot of charities’ travel programmes. From aid relief to disaster response and

beyond, UK-based charities have workers and delegates travelling across the globe , so how can charities take advantage of their unique status to

cut costs in this important area?

Well, there are a number of methods to reduce spend in your travel programme, but one of the best ways is to reap the benefits of the charity

fares that are available only through specialist travel management companies (TMCs). In this article, we’ll break down some of the main questions and queries on charity fares and fill you in on how you can

benefit from their unique raft of options.

Charity fares - what’s the story?


Below you can see an example of the savings made by one of our major humanitarian charity clients during 2017, simply by taking advantage of the additional benefits of charity fares:

Flight change savings:

£77,840

Additional baggage savings:

£83,649

Flight refund savings:

£157,380

Charity fares are special rates provided by airlines to achieve cost and time savings for charity organisations.

They are designed to offer not only a good price, but particularly to offer increased flexibility in terms of

changes and baggage amongst other things. Charity fares are not available directly with the airlines and

can only be purchased through specialist TMCs, such as Diversity Travel.

Charity and humanitarian fares were first pioneered over 30 years ago by Harish Sodha, founder of

Diversity Travel.

Harish managed to negotiate travel perks for charity workers that would usually cost much extra, such as no, or reduced, excess baggage fees, flexibility in changes and reduced

cancellation fees.

Airlines saw that saw the moral benefit in helping charities work on global projects and charity fares were rolled out across the

industry.

This depends on the supplier, but there are various ways in which charity fares can assist charities in their travel plans; examples of the kinds of benefits you can

expect to find are:

• Unlimited changes permitted• Reduced cancellation fees (up to 24 hours

before departure)• Savings of up to 80%• No additional luggage fees• Extended holding deadlines (in most cases

up to 72 hours before a flight)• Availability in economy, premium economy

and business class flights

What are charity fares?

When were they introduced?

What extra benefits do charity fares provide?

Charity fares are offered by a range of airlines, providing access to most major destinations worldwide.

Airlines known to offer charity fares include:

✓ Aeromexico

✓ Air Canada

✓ Air Europa

✓ Air France

✓ Air New Zealand

✓ Air Serbia

✓ Alitalia

✓ American Airlines

✓ Arik Air

✓ Austrian

✓ British Airways

✓ Brussels Airlines

✓ Cathay Pacific

✓ China Southern

✓ Delta

✓ Emirates

✓ Ethiopian Airlines

✓ Etihad

✓ Fiji Airways

✓ Gulfair

The best way to get more information on charity fares is to get in touch with your travel management company.

Remember, only specialist TMCs, such as Diversity Travel, offer these fares to charity clients.

if you’d like to find out more, simply drop us an email: [email protected].

✓ Iberia

✓ Jet Airways

✓ Kenya Airways

✓ KLM

✓ Lufthansa

✓ Malaysia Airlines

✓ Oman Air

✓ Philippine Airlines

✓ Qantas

✓ Qatar Airways

✓ Royal Air Maroc

✓ Royal Brunei

✓ Royal Jordanian

✓ Singapore Airlines

✓ South African

✓ SWISS

✓ TAP Portugal

✓ Thai Airways Int

✓ United Airlines

✓ Virgin Atlantic

Who offers charity fares?

Where can I find out more?



Losing touch?We've all been there: the flight delays, the train cancellations, the hotel booked an hour away from town. In these high-stress and frustrating situations, technology can be both our best friend and our greatest enemy. If you’re lucky, there’ll be a solution or suitable advice to resolve your predicament available online...

Technology, service & the future of travel.

Matt Truin, Operations Director, Diversity Travel.


But what if there isn’t any WiFi? What if the app or website is receiving too much traffic and goes down? What if customer support is a limited ‘chat’ that only provides options that don’t suit your needs? If technology fails, who’ll be there for you? More often than not, it’s a real, human person on the other side of the phone who has experience of dealing with these scenarios and who offer a variety of plausible solutions.

The rise in artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, among other technology, is undoubtedly transforming multiple industries. In many ways, it’s imperative to adapt to these industry changes and ensure that travel management companies are staying ahead of the curve in order to meet and exceed customer demands. Without this agility, we all risk being left behind.

However, a growing school of thought is attempting to remind us that technology is not the be-all and end-all. As much as technology is transformative, we must make a conscious effort not to become a ‘human-less’ society. One of these viewpoints comes from the Center for Humane Technology, a coalition launched in February 2018 by former Facebook and Google employees aimed at ‘reversing the digital attention crisis and realigning technology with humanity’s best interests.’

Although their lobbying efforts are more directly focused on addictive technology, the centre argues a fundamental idea that is applicable across our own travel industry – the concept that technology should be created ‘humanely’. That is, travel innovation should be mindful of human instincts so that we can design accordingly and compassionately.

Travellers in the humanitarian sector, for example, are not your ‘conventional’ business travellers, whose business travel is likely to be limited to heading overseas for a conference or to conduct a meeting. Instead, humanitarian workers are often bound for dangerous or far-flung locations, typically to carry out high-risk work – and it’s in these scenarios that the human touch is simply irreplaceable.

“Travel technology is evolving rapidly – every day we see new developments in the sector that allow TMCs to create ever more innovative solutions to their customers’ diverse needs,” says Matt Truin, Operations Director at Diversity Travel. “We create our own technologies to provide customers with seamless bookings and keep them safe on their travels, but, due to the nature of the markets we operate in, technology should always form just a part of a bigger picture.

For us, and for our clients, it’s crucial that we adopt a people-centric approach; one where human relationships always remain at the heart of what we do – our expert understanding will always be supported and distributed by our technology, not completely dependent on it.”

Diversity Travel ensures it has a global team of experts available 24 hours a day for exactly these situations, able to respond instantly whenever one of our clients’

travellers finds themselves in a challenging, unpredictable or threatening situation - we can offer informed guidance on their next steps.

“We believe it is vital to retain such services in an increasingly ‘human-less’ business travel landscape,” Matt adds.

So, when you’re next booking travel, procuring travel management, or away with your organisation, take a moment to reflect on the technological and human elements associated with your encounters. Is your service suffering from a relentless drive for technological solutions, at the expense of human relationships and understanding, or have you and your TMC struck the right balance of tech assistance and human empathy?

What are your thoughts on technology in the travel industry? Get in touch with us at: [email protected].

"It’s crucial that we adopt a people-centric

approach.”


Need for Online Booking Tools and User Adoption Trying to manage unhappy travellers can be one of the biggest headaches for any procurement department. For so many reasons, a unified, consistent means of booking travel across the organisation is a must – a streamlined, online system that upholds your travel policy and allows bookers to make decisions with all the information they need at their disposal can make a big difference to user adoption.And yet many are determined to do it their own way, either as a result of dissatisfaction at the booking process or service, or general reluctance to use online tools. The creation of a bespoke online tool can be a game-changer in these situations. A user-friendly interface can help significantly increase online adoption, resulting in safer and properly-managed travel.Not only that, but keeping everything in one place can help significantly cut down on costs while not compromising on quality – crucial when we are all faced by continuing squeezes on our budgets, allowing you to make savings while still delivering top quality Duty of Care.Booking outside of a travel management company’s recommended online tool can cause some serious headaches. However, a TMC’s online booking tool still isn’t every bookers first choice – but why? On page 14, we investigate how price comparison sites - the supposed ‘quick and easy’ option over an online booking tool - aren’t always all they seem.

Achieving Cost Savings and Control of Travel Spend Travel can be an expensive business – particularly when faced with late bookings or complicated itineraries involving multiple locations. But making use of travel management account managers’ proven knowledge and understanding of spend forecasting can be a huge help, allowing you to identify any areas for cost savings, and also make more strategic decisions when booking travel.These TMC relationships can also provide your organisation with access to exclusive rates, cutting down on rail, hotel and air fares, and allowing more breathing space for procurement teams looking to create efficiencies and preserve precious budget allowances. Ultimately, strategic budgeting and costing allows charities to do more of what they do best – help others, unhindered by unnecessarily costly travel.Life for African Mothers send specially-skilled midwives from all across the UK to remote regions of East, West and Central Africa. This could’ve been a costly affair in an operation where every little helps. Find out how we got involved to co-ordinate these flights, achieve major cost savings and assisting Life for African Mothers to continue saving the lives of pregnant women across the African continent on page 24.

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TOP 5 CHARITY TRAVEL PROCUREMENT CONUNDRUMS

You want to help your teams do what they do best – make a difference to people’s lives and promote positive change all over the world. But sometimes, it’s not that easy. Pressures from staff to fit travel arrangements to their exact expectations, as well as on

cost and time from above, create real challenges for procurement teams. But we’re here to help…

Management information can help with the forecasting of travel spend and assist in

reducing overall expenditure, giving control and clarity of

your spending.

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Improving Management Information & ReportingWe know - reporting isn’t the most exciting of tasks, you’re already busy and might even be questioning the value of investing precious time in it. If not handled properly, reporting can be one of the biggest headaches a charity will face when working with a TMC. The time has come to change this mentality and understand how measurement can be applied to benefit your organisation and make your life easier.Investing properly in management information (MI) processes can help with your forecasting of travel spend, as well as helping your organisation to reduce overall expenditure. This can lead to increases in booking lead-time and online adoption, which can give you control and clarity of your spending.It’s not just about direct cost savings, either. Inaccurate management information data can potentially compromise your duty of care obligations and leave room for deviation from organisation travel policies. That’s why good MI processes capture every step and detail of a journey and log them in a travel database. This information can then be stored, analysed and reported on to track spend or chart trends.We improved the Salvation Army’s reporting capabilities by consolidating their existing data with our real-time management information reporting system, and the results were amazing; improved traveller behaviour & travel policy compliance, in depth spend analysis and improved duty of care provision. Find out more in our comprehensive case study and interview with the Salvation Army’s Travel Manager, Mark Edwards on page 18.

Increasing Travel Policy ComplianceThe words ‘policy’ and ‘compliance’ alone can strike fear in the hearts of both procurement professionals and travellers themselves. You may have experienced some difficulties encouraging your staff to work within the guidelines of your travel policy. Shouldn’t travel be about freedom, they may ask, and giving ourselves as wide a range of options as possible to choose from? Aren’t policies rigid affairs that just cause unnecessary restrictions?Some travellers may try to outmanoeuvre these perceived complications and opt for an open booking approach – whether for brand loyalty, familiarity or even simple curiosity. In doing so, they immediately discount themselves from negotiated rates or fares, increasing maverick spend and dismantling any previously established cost-saving opportunities. That means you have to pay for travel on an unpredictable and ad-hoc basis, which is never fun to manage.

This kind of approach also totally lacks any kind of meaningful traveller support. When booking through a TMC, travellers get a 24/7 support network of travel agents and experts to assist them. Their TMC will tend to any changes, cancellations and itineraries, and source last minute alternatives. Traveller welfare will be of the utmost concern. Without this, you’re facing increased spend, invested time and stress – both for yourself and your staff. That’s why familiarising your staff with your travel policy, the benefits it brings and why adhering to it is a worthwhile investment of your and their time!

Inflexibility in Standard Air FaresCharity travel plans are usually built around very particular requirements – perhaps your people are called into action at short notice, need to travel with significant luggage requirements or to a destination in a highly volatile area. Despite advances, traditional standard air fares just don’t offer the flexibility to cover the complex needs of the charity traveller. Trying to negotiate around this can be another time-intensive headache.That’s where charity fares come in. Our Executive Chairman, Harish Sodha, negotiated the first charity air fares in the UK over 30 years ago, to assist charitable organisations in performing their crucial work abroad. Benefits of these fares range from increased baggage allowances and increased flexibility through to a guaranteed no minimum stay requirement.So, make sure that in your next travel procurement exercise, your TMC is in a position to offer you these extremely useful specialist fares. And be sure to have them detail the breadth of their offering: is it across one or two airlines or are they providing you with options from across a wide range of suppliers? There are a lot of additional benefits to using charity fares for your operations, and we know charity fares better than anyone else. You can find out more about the benefits, providers and history of charity fares on page 8.

The moral of the story is to remember that whatever your particular procurement problems are, help is at hand!

To discuss any issues you are facing or areas in need of clarification when it comes to charity travel procurement, just get in touch with our friendly, expert team on +44 (0)161 235 5400 or [email protected].

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4

On many comparison sites, the first price you see is not the final price you pay.

Sort by price… cheapest price… perfect! Hmmm. Maybe not. It’s in the comparison sites’ best interests to represent every price as a cracking deal, but do a bit of digging and you might find your final price is significantly more. Typical fees you might not see initially on comparison sites include: airport taxes, travel insurance, booking fees. Add all these on and you may have a very different price to that initial figure.

You’ll probably also be limiting the service you receive.

Booking through a comparison site and think they’ll be there to help if anything goes wrong on your trip? Sadly not. Once you’ve made your purchase, the comparison site takes its cut from the supplier and moves on. Equally, the companies with which the comparison sites do business are not always reputable and the focus on price over quality can come back to bite you.

Affecting your safety and security.

As a traveller, If you book for yourself online, it’s much harder for your employer to track where you are staying, how you are getting there, which carriers you are using etc. This information is not only important from an information standpoint, it’s also highly significant when it comes to any emergencies, something that is of particular importance to charitable organisations working in dangerous or volatile environments and territories. If you are travelling with work and your plans are disrupted by travel or other major incidents, your employer may struggle to find you and help you.

1 2 3

Want to book some travel or accommodation? Just jump online, do a quick search and jobs a good’un, right? Wrong.We’re all used to using comparison sites, they’ve become an accepted part of modern purchasing, whether it’s insurance or mortgages, broadband or travel, as consumers, it feels like we’re getting all the options and making an informed choice. But, the deals you are offered on these sites aren’t always as they seem… And when it comes to charity travel there are some very good reasons why booking for yourself via a comparison site is a false economy.


Why comparison sites aren’t always all they seemComparison Plight

So, what’s the alternative? Well, if your organisation uses a travel management company, booking online, via email or over the phone with them provides

a number of rather handy advantages.

From visa assistance and travel guides before you go, to instant updates and

repatriation in the event of an emergency, your travel management company will

provide you with peace of mind that whatever happens, you’re covered.

Specialist knowledge and expertise

Time-savingAccess to charity-specific faresTMCs allow you to send basic details of your requirements off to them and

have them do all the leg-work. No more hours scouring comparisons sites and the hundreds of prices on offer; let the

experts do that for you whilst you get on with your own important tasks.

Peace of mind, 24/7Travel management companies usually have highly-experienced staff, who know the best

routes, can offer time-saving tips and can hunt out the keenest prices, so make the most

of the professionals you have access to by tapping into their knowledge and experience.


Your travel management company should be able to offer you specialist charity fares. A number of airlines offer these sector-specific rates that offer a whole

host of advantages over standard fares – REMEMBER! You won’t be able to access these great deals via a comparison site.

DIVERSITY TRAVELLERS

From award wins to working with local charities to supplier trips and social events, our team has had a busy year in and out of the office. Here’s a glimpse into the Diversity family's recent travels.



CLIENT FOCUS

The Salvation ArmyBackgroundThe Salvation Army is a world-famous and uniquely structured Christian organisation that targets the social betterment of the poor with over 14,500 churches and 110,000 members across 128 countries. The organisation, which was founded in 1865, delivers addiction rehabilitation, emergency and crisis response, social care and health-related community development and educational programmes worldwide - primarily working in Africa, America and the Caribbean, Europe, South Asia, the South Pacific and East Asia.

The ChallengeThe Senior Management Team at the Salvation Army International Headquarters needed to develop their management information (MI) reporting to achieve a clear view of worldwide staff and worker travel statistics to improve risk analysis, identify travel trends and cost-saving opportunities and ultimately ensure that all travel requirements and requests are executed seamlessly and efficiently.Salvation Army International were also looking for a TMC with a global scope who could handle bookings with the same care and detail as their in-house agency, implement a comprehensive traveller tracking solution and deliver 24/7 expert advice, support and travel alerts.Due to the demanding scale of Salvation Army International’s requirements and operations, they required a personalised service and dedicated travel management team that could bring their attention to special rates and offers that they were eligible for. Salvation Army International also required a travel management company that could empower them with informed, objective and practical recommendations for improvements across their travel booking processes.

Why Diversity Travel?Salvation Army International chose Diversity Travel because of our proven ability to translate huge quantities of complex travel data into meaningful, clear and comprehensive reports, plus our ability to provide a personalised service and dedicated travel management team. Diversity could guarantee quick response times, 24/7 availability, extensive singular and group travel options and first class customer service with a genuine company-wide passion for their cause.

“We started working with Diversity Travel because we knew they were ambitious and growing rapidly but were also able to deliver excellent service whilst maintaining a personal touch. They are always forward thinking and we still feel like their most important client, even after several years of service.”

Mark Edwards, Travel Manager

The OutcomeFollowing an initial consultation, Diversity Travel presented a complete picture of Salvation Army International traveller behaviour and spend by consolidating existing data via our sophisticated, real-time MI reporting system. These results gave invaluable, tailored insight into the specific problem areas the international headquarters of the organisation wanted to prioritise - quickly identifying opportunities to save money and improve both travel policy compliance and duty of care obligations. Following this initial capture and presentation of Salvation Army International’s travel, we have been able to continuously provide a complete picture of travel behaviour and spend by consolidating all of Salvation Army International’s travel data in one central location.

A dedicated 24/7 team of Diversity Travel experts worked together with Mark Edwards, Travel Manager for Salvation Army International, to help our longest-standing charity client achieve major cost savings and full visibility of traveller behaviour. Read on to see what Mark had to say about the benefits of consolidating all of his organisation's travel data into one central location.


The Salvation Army International headquarters have successfully achieved full visibility of their organisations travel spend.

“Through Diversity Travel, we have achieved a crystal clear and real-time picture of all aspects of our varied and complex travel data. We’re now equipped with pain-free analysis, enabling us to easily find and exploit further saving opportunities at every level of our travel.”For Salvation Army International’s day-to-day travel requirements, we assigned a dedicated 24/7 team to provide expert advice and a full travel management service. The Willow Team deliver accurate and up-to-date quotes, and source and present various travel options to cater for the Salvation Army International’s complex and varied route requirements.

“The Willow Team understand our need for quick turnaround, respond speedily and always with the utmost professionalism. I’m always impressed with the responsiveness and flexibility shown by the team and Diversity Travel.”

Diversity Travel arranged for 1,480 delegates from 76 different countries to travel to London to celebrate the Salvation Army’s 150th anniversary at their International Congress. Though fares are normally only available up to 11

months before travel, Diversity Travel negotiated a special deal with airlines, securing group rates more than a year in advance, before the flights went on general sale. This instance alone resulted in savings of 16.7% amounting to £30,480.Since then, new processes and systems have been implemented in order to further improve efficiency and maximise cost savings. Salvation Army International utilise our exclusive air fares, discounted hotel rates, expert visa services, travel consultancy and programme analysis to achieve added value through their entire travel process.

Due to the wide-ranging nature of the Salvation Army’s operations, a bespoke risk management system was designed and implemented to provide real-time intelligence on staff and traveller locations, using colour-coded ratings to highlight the level of potential risk faced. Salvation Army International have a global overview of their travellers with live-location data, direct messaging capabilities, travel data for every booking and instant travel alerts to advise workers of emergencies and potential dangers. In providing these services, all communications to and from Salvation Army International travellers are logged and can be used to demonstrate compliance with duty of care obligations.Due to the wealth of improvements and services introduced and implemented by Diversity Travel, all world office bookings are now made through the Salvation Army’s UK office. This has resulted in an increase in travel and hotel booking effectiveness and in 2017, 54% of flights booked for Salvation Army International were booked on special charity or negotiated fares.Now in our 9th year of working with the Salvation Army, the relationship is stronger than ever and we’re looking forward to servicing their unique travel requirements in the years to come.

“We greatly appreciate what Diversity Travel has provided over the years. Their personalised service has been maintained at a high level from day one, and we know will continue to be done so as we move forward into the future.”

Mark Edwards, Travel Manager, The Salvation Army.

1,480 DELEGATES FROM 76 DIFFERENT

COUNTRIES

SALVATION ARMY INTERNATIONAL SAVED 16.7% ON THEIR

WORLDWIDE FLIGHTS FOR THE CONFERENCE THROUGH

EXCLUSIVE GROUP RATES


Your guide to a problem free visa application

Every foreign embassy has different resources, staff numbers and methods for processing applications. As such, it's a good idea for you to research how long your application may take and submit it as soon as possible. In some countries, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, your application can take a minimum of 3 weeks to process.

Be aware that whilst your application is under review you may not have access to your passport. Before submitting your application, be sure to fully consider your other travel commitments first. Make sure you can get by without a passport for however long your application will take. It never hurts to assume there will be delays too, so add a few extra days onto your plan just in case.

Timing is everything!

You'll be down a passport

“Purchase a second passport to stay flexible while your application is being processed.”

TOP TIP

Depending on where you've travelled, the entry stamps in your passport may actually hinder your journey.Some countries don't allow citizens or travellers from particular territories across their borders. This is typically due to political, military or cultural tension in that region. As such, restrictions of this nature will often be very difficult to negotiate past, if not impossible. If you intend to travel to a region containing any kinds of hostilities between territories, this is a very important factor to consider. Not only may you be unable to travel to your intended destination, you may even get into trouble with local authorities for trying. Spending a night in the cells over a misunderstanding was not a part of your itinerary! Many travel management companies have extensive duty of care services to account for these kind of situations, but best to avoid them outright where possible.

Sometimes travellers of certain nationalities can face extended processing times or stricter rules. As with the above point about entry stamps, this is typically due to political or cultural tension between nations. For example, Pakistan nationals wanting to travel to India face a much more scrutinous visa application process. This remains true no matter the nature of their visit, even if it's charity-focused.

Entry stamps can... deny you entry

Processing times can depend on your nationality

Applying for a visa is an essential part of many journeys undertaken by charities – for global travel, you simply can't cross international borders for extended amounts of time without one!

It can also be a time-consuming process, often requiring tedious visits to an embassy and hours kicking your heels, waiting in an interminable line of equally frustrated would-be travellers.

Every country has their own rule book and approach to approving visa applications. As a result, there is no one-set-way to guarantee your visa application will be approved on time. In worst case scenarios, your application may even be denied if you fail to meet an embassy’s exact criteria.

We spoke to Dan Hall, the head of our team of visa experts for his top tips on how to achieve a speedy, painless visa application no matter where you're travelling.

Dan Hall, Visa Team Manager, Diversity Travel.

Other examples include:• At the time of writing, 16 countries forbid admission to

Israeli passport holders: Algeria, Bangladesh, Brunei, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

• At the time of writing, citizens from Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea, Chad and Venezuela are affected by restrictions on entering the United States.

Take this factor into account when applying for a visa at a foreign consulate or embassy to reduce the chance of delays. These rules change all of the time, of course, so get in touch with your chosen TMC for the latest up-to-date information.

Many previously manual-only travel prerequisites are going digital, and visas are no different. Remember when you could only check in at the desk at airports? Gone are the days of manual data entry being the only way to organise your trip! There are now many electronic visa application systems available for you to use, however availability of e-Visa application systems vary greatly depending on where you are travelling. Similarly, there can be restrictions on what activities a traveller can engage in if they are visiting on an e-Visa. In some cases e-Visas are only available to tourists and certain nationalities.

At the time of publication, only 22 countries across the globe have electronic visa application systems.Countries with less developed ICT infrastructures probably won't have e-Visa capabilities, so don't treat it as a given! Many of the most visited countries in the world choose not to offer an e-Visa service, including; the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the United States and Spain.However, where accessible, e-Visa application systems provide many time saving benefits. Two of the primary benefits of e-Visa systems are that:

• The entire process takes place online, from the visa application and document submission to actual payment. This means that applications only have one online portal to sign into to complete their application.

• e-Visas reduce the need for travellers to visit embassies for visa related inquiries. This reduces both travel costs for the traveller, and queues at embassies or consulates.

There you have it, our top tips for ensuring a problem free visa application.If you have any questions or curiosities about your visa application, get in touch with our in-house experts. Our visa team has over 40 years' experience and with their help, you can minimise the chances of a costly application rejection.

T: +44(0)20 3544 3550 E: [email protected]


e-Visas exist!


Our year in charity...Local charitiesThroughout the year, we've continued to support Manchester-based homelessness charities and food-banks. We’ve donated bags upon bags of clothes, shoes and food donations to Barnabus, Manchester Central Foodbank and Coffee4Craig.

The team begin to hit the kitchen and subsequently the streets to serve meals to the homeless community in Manchester City Centre. This quickly became our monthly Street Kitchen with Coffee4Craig. Since starting, we’ve dished out around 400 meals for the homeless!

At Diversity Travel, it’s always important for us to find time to give back to our local community and support causes close to our hearts. We'd like to share what we’ve been up to over the past 12 months.

Last year, our very own Harish Sodha (Executive Chairman) and Sarah Burrows (Non-Executive Director) headed out to Uganda

for a quick trip, but not before asking a local Ugandan NGO what kinds of things are most needed by the local children.

Turns out the answer was underwear. Without hesitation, the Diversity Travel team raided Manchester’s shops for children’s

underwear and came back with 236 pairs!

UgandaEach month we choose a charity for our team to support

in various ways. In aid of Comic Relief we created our very own ‘Wear a Wig to Work Day’, things got competitive for Macmillan World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, and we had a DT cake-off. The gloves were off with the office’s bakers as

everyone was gunning for the Star Baker title. In the run up to Christmas, we enjoyed preparing shoe boxes to donate to Operation Christmas Child for Samaritan’s Purse.

Each shoebox was filled with practical, fun and interesting goodies and toys. Finding out that our shoe boxes made it all the way to Romania and put lots of smiles on the children’s faces, definitely cheered us up on a grey Manchester day.

Monthly donations

We're already planning what we can do to help others throughout 2018 & 2019 and are excited by the prospects of much more fundraising, bake sales and maybe even a sponsored run as we have lots of keen athletes in the team! We will be making our pledges throughout the year, so watch this space, and keep up via our blog at www.diversitytravel.com/blog.

So, what 's next?


In an increasingly volatile geopolitical climate, the crucial work charities do across the world is more important than ever. We are always inspired by the passion and commitment we see from volunteers, medical staff and

other aid workers taking their expertise to every far-flung corner of the globe, and we know that caring for their safety and security is paramount to the organisations they represent.

That’s why agile duty of care is so important. Duty of care is the obligation, both legal and moral, for organisations to ensure the safety and well-being of their staff and students. At Diversity Travel, we combine

industry-leading technology with expert knowledge to ensure that when danger strikes, you’re in safe hands. In this case study, we’ll take you through an example where Save the Children International (SCI) were caught in an extremely volatile situation and how the Diversity Travel team sprang into action to keep their people safe.

The 2016 crisis in Juba, South Sudan was one part of the wider South Sudanese Civil War that unfortunately continues to the present day.

The Juba crisis was a series of clashes between rival factions of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army loyal to President Salva Kiir and Vice-President Riek Machar. Over the course of a week in July 2016 heavy fighting

between these rival factions left hundreds of people dead, including civilians and a UN Peacekeeper.

We were alerted to the unrest in Juba on the 10th July through our Travel Risk Intelligence System. The situation was classified as a Level 1 incident and we immediately ran a report which notified us of all travellers from our partner organisations who were in the vicinity, as well as any who were due to travel to the region in the forthcoming two weeks. Emergency contacts at the relevant partner organisations were then alerted and

informed that we were investigating any impact for those who had booked travel through Diversity Travel, whether currently in situ or due to travel to the affected area. Within minutes we had identified that Save the

Children International (SCI) had 30 staff members in the immediate area.

Following notification of SCI emergency contacts, our Response Team contacted the affected travellers within an hour of the initial alert, in order to open channels of communication and provide friendly reassurance. Within

two hours we’d begun repatriation proceedings, providing clear and comprehensive instructions regarding what the affected individuals needed to do, and when. Arrangements were already being made and the

affected travellers were kept updated and reassured by the professionalism of the experienced in-house travel consultants who had all the necessary details at their immediate disposal.

Throughout the event, we constantly monitored the ongoing and developing situation on-the-ground through various channels, including national and international news outlets, Foreign & Commonwealth Office

information sources, and our own Travel Risk Intelligence Service updates.

Through the round-the-clock support of our Emergency and Night Teams, we were able to organise repatriation for all affected travellers in a matter of hours. Our comprehensive Emergency Response protocol ensured that we were in constant communication with the travellers on the ground, their own SCI emergency contacts, and the travel operators who were involved in the evacuation process. All 30 SCI staff in the affected area were

evacuated and repatriated safely within a matter of hours.

In summary, managing risk is of ever-increasing importance to charities carrying out their vital work across the world, so make sure you’re achieving your duty of care responsibilities by making the most of the services your

travel management company has to offer.

Duty of careWhat to expect from your TMC when things get tough

Now that the security environment of Juba is slowly stabilizing my colleagues and I would like to convey our thanks to your swift response in assisting rescheduling tickets and flight schedules. I appreciate that a great deal of coordination was required from your part which I feel was accomplished with the utmost professionalism under such challenging circumstances.“

Save the Children International

Born of an inspirational BBC Panorama documentary and a collective of passionate and like-minded individuals, Life for African Mothers is a maternal health charity aiming to make birth safer

for mothers and new-borns in Sub Saharan Africa, and is one of Diversity Travel’s hundreds of SME charity clients.

Founded in 2005, Life for African Mothers provides medication to treat the complications of child birth, support hospitals and health centres across Africa and facilitate local midwifery training

programmes by sending trained midwives from the UK to all corners of the continent.

We caught up with Life for African Mother’s CEO, Angela Gorman to find out what it’s like organising and carrying out such a challenging task in one of the world’s most volatile regions.

Life for African Mothers

CLIENT FOCUS


In 2005 I was a neonatal intensive care sister in Wales, having already been working in labour wards for 22 years with no intention of retiring… yet. I thought they’d have to drag me out of my profession when I was 85 and could no longer run from ward to ward in the event of an emergency!

On the 26th of June that year, I’d just worked an incredibly challenging 14-and-a-half-hour shift and had been running around, on my feet, all day. I arrived home at 10 O’clock, now seriously considering my retirements plans, collapsed into my armchair to watch some TV to wind down. Just after the news, a BBC Panorama report on a single doctor fighting to save the lives of pregnant women in Chad came on. I was seconds away from turning the TV off and heading to bed, but I knew this was something I had to see right away. An hour later and I was both horrified and inspired by what I’d seen. I’ll never forget hearing Dr Grace Kodindo saying “We lost a woman on Saturday, we lost a woman on Sunday we've lost the woman today, make that two women today...", when I knew for a fact that in Cardiff we’d lost 2 women in the past 12 years. This hospital in Chad was losing a woman a day.

Only a few days later I, along with 80 other equally moved individuals, were working together with the producers of the program to find the best course of action to help Dr Grace.

The first thing we did was secure the adoption of the hospital with UNISON. It wasn’t difficult to get everyone to agree this was an amazing cause! We then identified essential medicines were essential and set about fundraising. Before long we’d generated £5,000. The next stop was to source a company that could sell and ship these medicines to the hospital. Easier said than done of course!

As our efforts continued to develop and we got stronger as a team, we soon came up with the idea of sending a very small number of us with specific skills to Chad. By the end of the first year of operation, there I was sat in the hospital in Chad, talking face to face

to Dr Grace, the star of the inspirational Panorama programme. The BBC contacted us to arrange a special one-off ‘catch up’ episode focusing on our work and passion for the project. The film crew were already on their way.

After our first visit and the airing of the special follow up programme, support for Life for African Mothers was pouring in. When Dr Grace had internet and electricity, an intermittent commodity, she would write to us to share the impacts of what we’d done. The results were already incredible.

Where they had been losing 30 to 40 women a month, now 25 more women a month were surviving. The new-born survival rate had almost tripled. We relayed this information back to the

SO, ANGELA, HOW DID THIS ALL GET STARTED?

AND HOW DID LIFE FOR AFRICAN MOTHERS GET TO WHERE IT IS TODAY?

AND THEN THINGS REALLY TOOK OFF?


UN and in February 2007, 3 of us went back to see how the situation was for ourselves. There was a complete change in the environment and atmosphere at the hospital: the staff were smiling and more patients than ever were surviving. We again reported this to the UN and this was the trigger for a change of scale for the operation. The UN got back to us to ask if we could help in Liberia and Sierra Leone as we had in Chad. Here was the United Nations asking a tiny and independent organisation, based in the back bedroom of my home and running off one laptop, if we could help two countries that had just come out of civil war and arguably in one of the most volatile regions in the world at the time. We were gob-smacked. We really had to think about it for fears and concerns of our own safety. Things had moved so fast but our commitment never faltered. The Welsh government got involved, sharing our safety concerns, but agreed that the potential to save thousands of innocent lives was too great. The Welsh government did everything in their power to help, even enlisting the assistance of many other fantastic charities to support our cause and get additional funding and translators.

We first went to Liberia and again were amazed by what we found. Liberia was absolutely decimated by war and hospital staff were fleeing the region. Holes were still blown out of hospital roofs from battles, and the rainwater that ran into them was being used by doctors to wash their hands before and after surgery. It was the cleanest water available. The entire country only had 27 qualified doctors. We got to work

and, against all odds, made some incredible connections. We took the advice of obstetricians, our contacts at the UN and Dr Grace to know where to focus our efforts. All the while we were still organising the sending of supplies and medicines to Chad, but also now to Liberia too. Not long after I was invited to Sierra Leone and we started expanding our efforts not just there, but to Somaliland, Uganda and other nearby countries. It was at this point we started applying for grants for more qualified midwives to support our operations and assist in the training of local midwives.

Correct! When we were making up groups of specialised people for these life-saving and life-changing trips, they would come from across the UK. We had midwives from Newcastle, Ipswich, London, The Midlands, Wales and beyond. Trying to co-ordinate flights from these places to remote regions in East, West or Central Africa should’ve been difficult, but Diversity Travel made it completely hassle free. It was so enabling to be able to concentrate on our important operations and supply lines without having to worry about this major, intricate and potentially expensive part of the process.

When Ebola struck Guinea in the summer of 2014, it wasn’t long before I received a call to say we had a case at

Redemption, our hospital in the capital of Liberia. We had a group of new midwives due to fly there in just 3 days’ time. The operation had to be cancelled overnight. I thought we were going to lose the cost of the flights which, for an organisation such as ours, was a terrible expense to have to bare.

Just one of these flights equates to a colossal quantity of life-saving medicines for pregnant women.

Luckily, because of the great team at Diversity Travel we were able to get the cost of our flights returned in full, even at 3 days’ notice!

When we could return a year or so later, once Liberia was declared Ebola free, Diversity Travel organised both the flights there and back and used their inside-line with the African embassy to make the visa application process as simple, quick and affordable as possible.

Many thanks to Angela for sharing with us the incredible story of Life for African Mothers. To find out more about the crucial work they do, please visit their website at: lifeforafricanmothers.org.

If you’d like to learn more about how Diversity Travel help SME charities to carry out their vital duties across the globe, ring our team on 0161 235 5407.

Angela Gorman, CEO, Life for African Mothers.

IS THIS WHERE DIVERSITY TRAVEL BECAME

INVOLVED?

It was so enabling to be able to concentrate on

our important operations and supply lines without

having to worry about this massive, intricate and potentially expensive part

of the process.

”

OF FLIGHTS BOOKED WITH DIVERSITY TRAVEL WERE

EXCLUSIVE CHARITY OR NEGOTIATED FARES

89%

26 CHARITY COMPASS

Winter Olympics 2018 hosts new events this year such as sledging relay, tubing drag race and igloo building. Sorry, we meant Diversity Travel’s Winter Olympics!

We celebrated our 10th anniversary on 10th February 2018 with a huge celebration and winter games at Manchester’s Chill Factore. As if Manchester wasn’t cold enough, over 60 of our team braced the sub-zero temperatures to take part in snow-themed challenges at the UK’s longest indoor ski slope. After a very close competition, the winning team was the Orange team, consisting of a motley crew of marketing heroes, business intelligence specialists, online and IT support gurus and sales and finance whiz-kids.

There was, of course, 'friendly' gloating and they proudly wore their medals for the duration of the evening, which consisted of a themed Bavarian Buffet, sprawling view of the artificial ski slopes and, of course, a party and DJ. As if proceedings needing taking up a notch?! It’s cliché, but the Diversity staff really do work hard and play hard.

To thank staff for their hard work, the company also hosted our first annual Diversity Travel staff awards ceremony. Six awards were given during the celebration, including Best Newcomer, which went to our Credit Controller Sarah Hobbs. Innovation of the Year award went to Mahmoud Salah for his work on our revolutionary and award-winning quoting system Instaquote. The Team of the Year award was giving to the Willow Team for their continuous high level of service.

The Superhero award went to the rail Assistant Team Manager, and true one of a kind, Allie Coker. Jo Lawes from the Relief Team was awarded for her excellent service, and the Outstanding Achievement award went to Juniper team’s Lee Streetly.

Each of our winners won amazing prizes in the way of flights to the furthest and most exotic reaches of the globe from our airlines partners, who also sponsored the staff awards. We’d like to thank again our sponsors; Turkish Airlines, Jet Airways, Ethiopian Airlines, British Airways and South African Airways.

Company-wide we're all incredibly proud of their continued effort, contributions and commitment which are what makes Diversity Travel a leader in the travel management sector.

Christopher Airey, managing director of Diversity Travel, said:

“Our anniversary celebration was dedicated to all of our proud and passionate staff, who have been instrumental in propelling us through the incredible journey we’ve had in our first 10 years as a business.”

“We have demonstrated strong, consistent growth since the business was founded, but remain hugely ambitious and keen to improve further for all of our customers. We are developing some exciting new initiatives to launch later this year, and we look forward to an even bigger celebration in a few years’ time!”

You heard it here first… the future is bright for Diversity Travel.

We’d like to take the opportunity to say thank you to all of our customers, suppliers, partners and our people who’ve made the first ten years so enjoyable. Here’s to you and the next decade!

DT 10 year celebrations!10 years of supporting UK & global charities 1,895

clients 149,145passengers

261,811flights


In the current global climate, and with increasingly diverse workforces, it’s more important than ever that charitable organisations meet their legal and moral obligations of duty of care.

We spoke to Carolyn Pearson, pioneering safety advocate and CEO of the female traveller safety experts, Maiden Voyage, to pick her brains on everything from traveller safety to diversity and her top three travel tips.

What was the reason behind starting Maiden Voyage?I was on a business trip working in Hollywood. As a prolific ‘bleisure’ traveller, I had taken the weekend prior to my business meetings to rest and get out and see the city, however the reality was very different. I found myself staying in a soulless business hotel in downtown LA, not the kind of place for a woman to venture out alone in the evening. I figured there must be thousands of women in the same position as I who were either holed up in a hotel and bored, nervous about venturing out alone or indeed avoided it because of unwanted attention. There must be a solution I thought, perhaps a site through which I could connect, but there wasn’t so I created it.

How did you end up working in travel management and training?At the time of launching Maiden Voyage, it was just really just a ‘hobby’ to satisfy my own desire to have more connections around the world. I was leading technology at ITV and then went on to work at the BBC and Easyjet. Maiden Voyage continued to grow in the background, evolving rapidly into female friendly hotels, corporate solutions and female traveller safety training. At a certain point the business got so big that I had to make a choice between a secure and well-paid career that I loved and a totally reckless risk to follow my instinct and passion. I took the leap 4 years ago and in 2016 we secured close to £500K in investment which allowed me to build a team around me and develop a series of travel safety eLearning modules.Because I’ve been active in the industry from the start, I’ve built hundreds of fruitful relationships so now it’s very easy to collaborate and partner with others in business travel who share our values. They know and trust us because

I’ve actually been building the Maiden Voyage brand for close to a decade.At the time, I couldn’t have foreseen the explosion in social media or the emphasis on duty of care, and with more women now travelling on business this created a ‘perfect storm’ that got me to where I am today.

What do you find are the key issues facing women travellers?

It’s still the original impetus which is that lots of women don’t feel comfortable venturing out in their spare time, so they miss out on the cultural experience and from a wellbeing perspective they don’t get a break from work. In the business world, they are more likely to sit in their hotel rooms and work, unlike their male colleagues who can pop to the bar with less risk of being subject to unwanted attention.Of course, some of the safety concerns are very real. One in four women have suffered a negative incident when travelling on business and half of those are related to sexual harassment. There is a particular concern over women travelling on humanitarian work, due to social, political and cultural differences in many of the areas that they work.

What progress have you seen in travel and accommodation suppliers catering to the needs of female travellers and what work is there still to do?We recently ran the Women in Business Travel Research and partnered with Virgin Trains, International SOS and a number of other organisations. That was a major milestone in creating a benchmark to really understand where the industry was. Sadly, from this research we learned that 70% of women felt that travel providers should try harder to meet the specific needs of women travellers.Not surprisingly, safety and security

is at the top of the list and the accommodation sector has a great opportunity to make some of the easiest but most effective changes. Simple things such as not announcing room numbers out loud at check-in and installing separate locks that cannot be overridden with a master key or lead to embarrassing situations when hotels bedrooms are double-allocated; something that happens far too frequently.A number of hotels have started to install double-locking doors in order to get the Maiden Voyage certification but there’s also got to be a commitment from the hotel leadership, Tony Elvin at Hotel du Vin in Birmingham is a real stand-out pioneer in this area. It also makes good business sense. 80% of travel decisions are made by women and the Cornell School of Hospitality concluded this in its report ‘Creating Value for Female Business Travellers’.

Workforces are increasingly diverse, what do organisations need to do to reflect this change in how they approach travel and traveller safety?The worst thing an organisation and do is to shy away from gender-specific travel safety conversations. The world isn’t equal and if you are sending a women traveller or a member of the LGBTQ community to a country where there are cultural, religious or legal restrictions affecting them, you are failing in your duty of care if you don’t arm them with the relevant information.We’ve seen an increase in the number of organisations asking what

Travelling smart, travelling safe.

The worst thing an organisation can do is to shy away from

gender-specific travel safety conversations

”


provisions are in place for female travellers during the TMC RFP process and at least one major investment bank is asking for Maiden Voyage certification in their hotel procurement process.This benefits organisations in other ways too. With the right provisions in place they can actually attract and retain female talent whose roles entail business travel.

What role can travel management companies play in helping organisations meet their duty of care obligations?I regularly come across organisations and TMCs working together with a focus on cost and compliance, rather than on duty of care. However, if both parties focused on duty of care, they would have a valid reason to push compliance which then gives them the power to drive down costs. Both parties have to be committed to this as an outcome.Here’s a real-life example.A female journalist is covering a political party conference. The hotel rates are understandably high at this time, so to keep within budget the TMC places her out of town. The business traveller has to take a taxi very late at

night back to her hotel. The total cost of the trip is higher than exceeding the capped rate. In this particular example the hotel was located down country lanes and the taxi driver got lost. The female passenger was extremely anxious in this situation. The risk to her and her wellbeing increased as a result. These types of examples are, sadly, extremely common.

What do you enjoy most about your job?I’m struggling to pick one thing. I love the variety of clients we have, huge names in premiership sport, silicon valley tech giants, luxury brands to pharmaceutical companies, charities and one of the world’s biggest entertainment corporations. I love the genuine gratitude from the women

that we are helping and some of them become our biggest advocates. Then there’s the wonderful opportunities (that often come packaged as curve balls) that come our way every week. In short, it’s been a huge roller-coaster to grow a business from the ground up but it’s also a gift.

Finally, what are your top 3 tips for traveller safety?1. Research, Research, Research (your

destination). 2. Politeness should come secondary

to personal safety.3. Complacency is your biggest

enemy.

Carolyn is the CEO and Founder of Maiden Voyage, an organisation that provides intelligence and solutions to support the corporate female traveller. She is a regular speaker on the international speaker circuit on the subject of female business traveller safety. She represents women travellers on the Global Business Travel Alliance (GBTA) Risk Committee, is one of several travel risk professionals on the advisory board for PEAR Insights magazine and was a finalist in the Women in Security Awards.

Carolyn Pearson, CEO, Maiden Voyage.


Sarah Hart, Assistant Team Manager

Tell us more about your roleMy job as a whole involves supporting the travel consultants who work on the Cedar reservations team along with assisting the Team Manager. I work very closely with the Team Manager monitoring our team’s workload, and in their absence, taking on management responsibilities.

As the cross-department hotels expert, I’m relied on to keep reservations staff up to date with our latest products, as well ensuring all teams are updated on any new tech developments.

Sarah has been with Diversity Travel since her career started as an apprentice in 2013. She has since progressed to Administration Assistant, a Business Travel Consultant and was made an Assistant Team Manager in the last year.

It’s safe to say she’s been busy during her time at Diversity Travel with extraordinary development in such a short space of time, not forgetting her recent well-deserved TTG Business Travel Agent of the Year win – awarded for her outstanding performance and powerful impact on the business. She’s an absolute favourite with our clients!

Let’s find out a little more about Sarah and her role as Assistant Team Manager…

Meet the team


To finally stand in Times Square was truly surreal after seeing it so many times in films and on TV! On the ferry to Staten Island we the saw the Statue of Liberty and it gave me goose bumps and was quite an emotional experience. It was incredible. I loved it!

If you could give one piece of advice for travellers what would it be?Be prepared and triple check everything before you go. That means tickets, confirmations, suitcases and your passport!

We’ve got a blog on the website called ‘Are you preparing for trips like a pro?’ that covers our top recommendations for things to check before you set off, check it out.

If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take three things, what would they be?A comfy pillow is an absolute must. Then surely a nice bottle of red wine, possibly a Pinot Noir, to accompany a stunning sunset perhaps. And lastly, only the best rations for a potentially extended stay, a pack of KitKat Chunkies.

What more could anyone need?

What do you enjoy most about working at Diversity Travel?I love that everyday can bring a new challenge. We arrange travel to the most obscure places in the world so it’s always fun to get a challenging route that I need to source the best options for, at a great price. I recently had a particularly fun time organising a Caribbean island-hopping trip for a client flying out from Paramaribo. Let me tell you, flights across this area were not very frequent or easy to secure! However, we made it work and they had an incredible time. It was highly rewarding to make their trip go without a hitch from behind the scenes like that.

Where’s the most memorable place you’ve travelled to?It has to be New York. I was lucky enough to win a place on an agent familiarisation trip back in 2016 with some of my Diversity Travel colleagues. It was always top of my travel bucket list and was everything I ever imagined.

"Triple check everything before you go. That means

tickets, confirmations, suitcases and your passport”

"It was highly rewarding to make their trip go

without a hitch”

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C MPASS - Diversity Travel€¦ · C MPASSCHARITY TOP CHARITY TRAVEL PROCUREMENT TIPS Identify and conquer the most common charity travel procurement challenges SALVATION ARMY INTERNATIONAL