When people travel internationally for work, particularly to unfamiliar or higher-risk environments, something interesting happens to their perception of security.
During the first days of a trip or deployment, everything is new. The traveller does not yet know the neighbourhood, traffic patterns, local customs or which areas should be avoided. Mistakes are easily made simply because of inexperience and unfamiliarity. You pay expat-prices at the local market or at taxis, your phone gets stolen in crowded areas, or you are lost in your own neighbourhood.
After a while, things generally improve. Travellers learn the environment, understand their routines and become better at navigating local risks. But then another danger can emerge: complacency.
This is something we discuss during our Security Awareness sessions in e.g. our Hostile Environment Awareness Training (HEAT). We often describe it as a curve: initially, vulnerability may be relatively high because the environment is unfamiliar. As knowledge and experience increase, vulnerability decreases. But after prolonged exposure, familiarity can gradually turn into normalisation.
“I’ve taken this road dozens of times.”
“I always walk back to the hotel from here. Even late at night.”
“I’ve never had problems using my phone in the street.”
“That checkpoint is harmless.”
These statements may be based on genuine experience, but they contain a potential security trap: the absence of previous incidents does not necessarily mean that an activity is safe.
Research into international travel has found that previous travel experience shapes people’s perception of risk and their subsequent travel decisions. And the risks are not merely theoretical. A systematic review of injury deaths among international travellers found travellers appeared to face higher injury mortality than domestic populations in the studies reviewed. Road traffic incidents, drowning and homicide were specifically highlighted.
Although the incidents differ per area and per target audience (tourists behave differently than NGO staff), the research is clear: travelling involves certain risks which could have been prevented if certain preparation was done. Whether that is a first time traveller doing their research regarding the destination, or an experienced traveller knowing which things to prepare for that specific context and explicitly preparing them for the hundredths time.
For NGO staff and travelling professionals, the lesson is simple: experience should increase situational awareness, not replace it.
The person who has been somewhere for three months may know considerably more than the person who arrived yesterday. But familiarity can also encourage shortcuts: abandoning journey-management procedures, carrying valuables more openly, repeatedly using the same routes, ignoring check-in procedures, accepting unsafe transport or dismissing changes in the local security situation.
Good security behaviour therefore requires something more than knowledge. It requires a conscious effort to remain alert when the unusual starts feeling normal.
Security awareness should not end when someone becomes comfortable in their environment. In many ways, that is precisely when it deserves renewed attention.