Non-Conspicuous Business Travel, the New Norm

The other day, I was at Starbucks I was talking to a gentleman who was formerly from Ireland. He is now a US citizen, and he runs a business in the transportation industry. Specifically he shuttles executives, and wealthy individuals to and from the airport, and around town in town cars and Limousines while they are on vacation, or while they are snow-birding in our desert resort community. We got to talking about how more and more wealthy folks and corporate executives are traveling incognito without the flashy Limousines. There's a reason for this, and I'd like to talk about it for a moment if I might.

If you "travel large" and flash the cash so to speak, carrying expensive designer bags jump in and out of expensive cars, well, in some countries you are liable to get kidnapped if you are too conspicuous or if you appear be wealthy. If you look like you are a corporate executive, there's a good chance that your company has bought travel insurance to pay off the kidnappers, and therefore, that's easy money, and you will soon become a target.

Also, we seem to have a challenge with the 99 percentile group which believes that the wealthy are somehow evil, should pay more taxes, and there are enough people who are fully engaged in class warfare to make it actually dangerous in the United States in some areas. Much of the masses have been emboldened by the political rhetoric on TV and in the mass media that's okay to attack wealthy folks, a cost them at their home, or call them out as greedy bastards. No, of course that's not okay, but for some reason the political rhetoric is at an all-time high, probably due to the election season, and since we have a populist style president currently.

My acquaintance was making a point that many of the folks that called him to pick them up at the airport, did not want a limousine, even if the price was the same, and actually requested "NOT" to be picked up in a limo. They'd rather have a Lincoln town car, or a nondescript car of that nature, one which was not black or looked expensive to come pick them up. This way they would blend in, and no one would notice that they are of wealth. He said this is becoming more and more common. Okay so, this is your word of warning to be careful in your business travels.