Part of Corporate Travel
Quick answer
Reviewed · 4 min read
A travel emergency response plan sets out who does what when a traveler is hurt, stranded or caught in a crisis. It covers preparation before trips, a named response team and contacts, how you locate travelers, step-by-step responses to medical, security and disaster scenarios, communication with families, and a review afterward. Write it before you need it and test it once a year.
Researched and maintained by Empyrean Travel · How we research
- Owner
- One named incident lead plus a backup
- First goal
- Account for every traveler in the affected area
- Test
- A tabletop exercise once a year
- Depends on
- Knowing who is where; see traveler tracking
The checklist
Tick items off as you go — your progress stays in this browser.
Why does a company need a travel emergency plan?
Because emergencies don’t wait for business hours. When an earthquake, a hospitalization or a stolen passport hits a traveler at 2 a.m., the people at home need to know who calls whom, what the company will pay for and where the traveler’s details are. A plan turns panic into a checklist.
It’s also the practical core of duty of care. ISO 31030, the international guidance standard for travel risk management, is a useful reference for structure, but a small company can start with the template below and grow it.
How do you adapt the plan to your company?
Make the plan fit how and where your people actually travel, and keep it short enough to use under pressure.
- Scale it to your travel: a few domestic travelers need a page; staff in higher-risk regions need more
- Name real people, with phone numbers that work after hours
- Decide spending authority in advance, such as who can approve an evacuation or a last-minute flight home
- Know your coverage: the assistance provider’s number and what your medical evacuation insurance includes
- Review it with HR, legal and your insurer, especially spending limits and medical privacy
What are the common mistakes in travel emergency plans?
Plans usually fail on basics, not on rare edge cases.
- Roles listed with no names or phone numbers attached
- No quick way to know who is in the affected city
- Emergency contacts that are years out of date
- Nobody authorized to spend money quickly
- Never tested, so the first rehearsal is the real event
- No one assigned to keep families informed
What should happen in the first hour of an incident?
Three things, in order. First, find out who might be affected by pulling the list of travelers in or heading to the area. Second, make contact and record each person’s status. Third, decide on immediate actions, such as holding travelers who haven’t left yet, opening a case with the assistance provider, or moving people to a safer location.
Keep one incident log owned by the incident lead, and update leadership at set intervals rather than continuously. Calm, regular updates prevent the rumor cycle that fills the gaps.
How can Empyrean support your emergency plan?
Empyrean can be part of the plan rather than separate from it. Because trips are booked through one channel, we can tell you who is traveling where, share itineraries with your incident lead, and rebook or reroute travelers when flights are disrupted. On-trip help comes through the Virtuoso/Andavo support network.
We can also check that traveler profiles hold current emergency contacts, and our guide to what to do in an emergency abroad makes a useful briefing for travelers.
Frequently asked questions
What should a travel emergency response plan include?
Who should lead a company’s travel emergency response?
How quickly should we be able to locate our travelers?
Does travel insurance replace an emergency plan?
Is this emergency plan template legal advice?
Official sources
Rules, fees and schedules change — confirm the latest details at the source before you travel.