Wings Travel Management, specialist travel provider to corporates doing business in emerging markets and high risk destinations, is bolstering its commitment to supporting clients with traveller safety by introducing goSecure™, a sophisticated risk management and alert portal.
goSecure will enable Wings’ consultants to locate and communicate with travellers and bookers accurately and rapidly in times of emergency. This advanced tool features four dashboards showing: Who’s Where; Who’s Flying; Locate an Individual; and iJet World View. Wings consultants can view travellers on interactive maps, track exactly what stage each traveller has reached on their itinerary and send fast, precise and relevant notifications to travellers and bookers if someone is at risk. As well as finding current locations, such as Paris or Berlin during recent terrorist atrocities, goSecure enables Wings consultants to determine, with just one click, if travellers have been in a region before a risk such as Ebola or Zika becomes apparent.
Alternatively for those clients who already have an established risk management strategy, Wings offers the option of goSecure+™, whereby the TMC will implement a fully-customised portal for use in-house by travel managers to locate and communicate with their travellers at all times.
A unique aspect of goSecure is that clients can opt to link the risk management portal with Wings new intuitive mobile app VIMA™ (Virtual Itinerary Management Application). Travellers have the option to download VIMA to conveniently view their flight itineraries, check for flight status updates, departure gates and weather at their destination. However, if Wings’ clients also subscribe to goSecure or goSecure+, then VIMA becomes a vital security alert tool as consultants can proactively send high-level notifications relevant to the individual traveller, for example, telling him or her not to board their plane, or to remain in their hotel due to a terrorist threat. Travellers can also be quickly located via mobile GPS and can communicate that they are ‘safe’ during a crisis.
“From day one, when Wings was founded 25 years ago, our commitment to risk management and giving our clients critical safety support has been at the core of our operations due to the nature of our clients’ complex and often hazardous travel needs. For example, we took the decision to establish each of our global locations as wholly owned offices and now have fully controlled operations in North America, South America, UK/Europe, Africa and the Middle East,” said Paul East, COO, UK/Europe & Americas, Wings Travel Management
“This is a key point of difference to our competitors. Most other TMCs do not own their own operations in high risk markets such as Nigeria and Angola; they use partner agencies or franchisees. Because we own and manage all of our global operations, our clients benefit from consistent service and a single global technology platform. This is critical in times of emergency as our people can access travel bookings regardless of where or when the reservation was made and provide support immediately,” explains East.
“By introducing goSecure and VIMA we are adding another layer of travel risk support to our operations. Wings has unrivalled experience managing travel for clients heading to high risk destinations and unpredictable markets in the energy, construction and security sectors. However, as terrorist attacks become more random and indiscriminate, everywhere in the world is potentially a high risk destination. Traveller safety and risk management have moved to the top of every corporate’s agenda and our expertise in this area is hugely beneficial to companies in every sector.”