As a marketing executive for cruise and tour companies most of my career, I thought that managing risk on the job was a relatively benign duty.

Risks usually focused on ROI with a direct mail campaign, or going out with empty cruise ship cabins and taking appropriate actions to mitigate that possibility. Sure, there was some risk in making sure we had talented employees or suppliers and enough of them to get the work done to make our sales forecast. But you would be hard pressed to say these sorts of risks were career or life threatening.

Recently, while serving as the director of the industry association IAATO, I was introduced to other types of risks and risk management tools. One of them – Foreign Voluntary Workers Compensation Insurance – caught my attention, and I think it’s worth writing about. I’d like to hear your comments on this issue, too.

I had a chance to review the Skift Trend Report issued earlier this week: Airports as Destinations: The Rise of User Experience.

While the airport industry isn’t my area of expertise, the report does bring together some trends that most of us who travel often have probably noticed in recent years. And, after all, who among us aren’t interested in learning that airports, at least some of them, are becoming more functional, user-friendly and “experiential” in a good way?

“Once regarded as purely utilitarian infrastructure, airports are now becoming more integrated with their surroundings and hosting new experiences for passengers and non-passengers alike,” the report’s preface notes.

There are also a few good lessons to be garnered here by other segments of the travel industry. Some, such as the large, mass-market cruise lines, grasped these principles quite a while ago. Since I focus on small-ship and specialty tour marketing and PR, I’ll conclude with how these ideas can enhance the travel experience for passengers and guests of these operators, too.