Japan's Nippon Travel Agency Co. has launched a crisis management center for travelers and expats in the capital of Malaysia, to cash in on an increasing awareness of crisis management among overseas Japanese firms.
The travel agency and its Singaporean arm, NTA Travel (Singapore) Pte. Ltd., as well as their partners including a crisis management firm, established Taskal Resources Sdn. Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur with a capital of some 1.8 million ringgit ($450,000, ¥49 million) in January, said a Taskal statement released Tuesday.
Taskal will support users in trouble 24 hours a day via its business chat app and multilanguage call center providing a one-stop solution.
The business-to-business service includes the immediate dispatch of local staff to the location of trouble in more than 100 countries, medical consulting and air ticket arrangements in emergencies.
The firm will market the service to Japanese firms with overseas workers, hoping to acquire 3,500 new account contracts a month in the initial business year.
"As Japanese people are expanding their fields overseas, Japanese companies' awareness of crisis management is increasing," Tadayuki Kabeta, representative of Taskal, told NNA on Monday.
His company plans to offer "best efforts" service to help travelers and expatriates solve problems when they encounter such troubles as theft, injury or illness.
It is planned that the service will also cover cases of emergencies including terrorism or disasters.
But because major incidents such as warfare, terrorism or natural disasters do not occur often, most of the troubles encountered by travelers and expats are less serious travel-related issues, according to Kabeta.