CNN Business Traveller
SHOW #77
Be Prepared
A recent survey by the on-line booking site Expedia found that 87% of businessmen rank safety as an important consideration when making travel arrangements. No doubt these concerns will have been heightened by such headline grabbing events as the Mumbai terror attacks, the Turkish Airlines and Buffalo air crashes and the narrow escape of passengers on US Airways Flight 1549 which touched down in New York’s Hudson River. Of course, we can never guarantee our journeys to be 100% accident free but there are precautions we can take. On this month’s show we’re all about staying safe on our travels.
CRASH COURSE
Have you ever wondered whether the in-flight demonstration of how to put on an oxygen mask or the card in the seat pocket in front of you were enough to prepare you for one of those stomach churning emergency situations? Some companies feel that their workers might need more than diagrams and hand signals to get them ready, so they’re putting them through simulated emergency landings. British Airways now offers a safety course that was once only available to their pilots and cabin crew. It takes place in a Heathrow hangar and gives participants a realistic taste of emergency procedures from crawling through a smoke filled cabin and inflating a life jacket to opening emergency doors and exiting down evacuation slides. Barry Leonard, one of the US Airways Flight 1549 survivors, tells us how such time-honoured procedures saved his life.
SAFE AS HOUSES
It’s tempting think that five stars equals impenetrable citadel. The terrorist raids in Mumbai shattered that illusion. They raised the question of whether as much attention had been paid to security as had been paid to luxury. Mallika Kapur reports from Mumbai on the additional security measures that have been taken by the Oberoi in light of last year’s tragic events and asks whether the baggage the security checks now commonplace in airports will have to become a feature of upmarket hotels. In Berlin we check out the Presidential Suite of the Adlon Kempinski, supposedly the most secure hotel room in the world. We ask what type of business traveller requires bullet proof windows, surveillance cameras, private elevators and access to a panic room in order to get a good night’s sleep.
ARMOURED SUITS
For most of us a secure hotel room and a good insurance policy are all we need to feel safe but the more adventurous traveller may need more adventurous protection. We look at a range of high-security fashion by the ‘Armani of Bullet-proof Apparel’, Columbian designer Miguel Caballero. For those of us more prone to bugs than bullets business traveller, Vanessa Emilio gives us her top tips for travel safety and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives tell us what four items a business traveller should never leave home without.
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