LEBANON, NH, July 16, 2020 – Global Rescue, the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services, hosted a highly anticipated webinar “Restarting Your Operation: Legal Liability and Duty of Care For Tour Operators During the Pandemic.” The exclusive webinar was open to thousands of travel tour operators, travel industry businesses and travelers. 

“Whether you’re a tour operator, traveler or government, the pandemic is forcing everyone to learn how to mitigate risk to restart their operations” said Global Rescue CEO Dan Richards. “The challenges we are confronting are unique and the insights from our featured speakers are invaluable as we all work to further understand the new travel risk management landscape,” he said.

Former President of Geographic Expeditions and Yosemite Park Ranger Jim Sano moderated the webinar and said a successful return to domestic and international travel will require four essentials from travel tour operators.

“Tour operators should consider having COVID-19 waivers. They should scrupulously maintain established practices to avoid disease spread. They need to enhance emergency response abilities. And it’s ideal to team up with an emergency travel risk medical provider to handle the responsibilities of medical emergencies,” he said.

The webinar focused on three core topics:

  • Insurance – Approaching client risk and adhering to relevant guidelines
  • Legal liability – Balancing common-sense precautions while protecting yourself from safety guarantees
  • Medical and operations – Understanding critical resources for response and mitigation

Liability specialist for tour operators, Ken Whitman, is a senior program manager at AON, the world’s largest insurance broker. He said tour operators need to be careful during the pandemic not to take on or assume additional responsibilities or obligations that result in them assuming legal liability for things for which they are normally not responsible. “It’s better practice for them to put these obligations on the vendors that are providing the services, and to confirm they are fulfilling those obligations through proper vetting,” he said.

Jeff Ment, an attorney with expertise in travel related issues including legal liability and duty of care, said COVID-19 is a known danger and tour operators are moving quickly to prepare for that unparalleled liability exposure. “Waivers are a must, if you don’t have one already. If you do already have one, then having a COVID-19 specific waiver may not be necessary,” he said.

Ment added that the pandemic is adding more awareness steps to the travel process. “Tour operators need to know what their customers may be asked as the trip is happening. You need to know in advance if they’re going to be asked to sign something. You can’t hand something to travelers at the last second and expect them to legally be obligated to sign it,” he said.

Global Rescue’s Vice President of Operations, Scott Hume, said that as travel opens up internationally people must assess the medical capabilities and transportation infrastructure to get you to healthcare facilities at your destination in case you fall ill. “Just as important is who bears the cost should you get sick and stuck on the other side of a border with an illness and without the medical facilities or infrastructure to treat you,” he said.

Global Rescue’s Medical Director Dr. Claudia Zegans said tour operators need to follow established guidelines and steer clear of taking on responsibilities suited for medical experts. “Tour operators must rigorously adhere to basic guidelines like washing down high-touch surfaces and creating situations enabling physical distancing but they should not stray into the medical lane of conducting tests. They should leave that to others,” Zegans said. “When someone gets sick or injured, things go wrong quickly — unless tour operators partner with a travel risk and crisis management company so medical emergencies are handled by trained healthcare professionals,” she added.

A recording of the webinar is available upon request. To arrange an interview please contact Bill McIntyre at bmcintyre@globalrescue.com or 202.560.1195 (phone/text).

 

About Global Rescue

Global Rescue is the world’s leading provider of medical, security, evacuation and travel risk management services. Founded in 2004, Global Rescue has exclusive relationships with the Johns Hopkins Emergency Medicine Division of Special Operations and Elite Medical Group. Global Rescue provides best-in-class services that identify, monitor and respond to client medical and security crises.