Visas, ETIAS, Duty of Care, & Anti-Corruption: keeping multi-country events safe, legal and audit-ready
The 2026 compliance landscape for international business travel has become a whole lot trickier. New visa requirements, beefed-up duty-of-care obligations and a heightened focus on anti-corruption have all come together to create a world where event planners are often flying blind. This checklist takes a no-nonsense approach to covering every aspect you need to be on top of – visa requirements, duty of care and anti-corruption – in the language planners can actually act on right now.
How to Navigate the New Entry-Authorisation Rules
The UK ETA: now mandatory for almost everybody
The UK’s Electronic Travel Authorisation is now on the table for a massive chunk of non-visa nationals – including most Europeans who used to breeze in. For corporate events, this means you need to check every delegate’s eligibility: ETAs are tied to a passport, cost a bit per person, and need to be approved before you travel, not on arrival. Many planners are going to end up with a delegate stuck at check-in if they think of this as a formality, rather than a key part of the programme timeline.
ETIAS is now delayed till 2027
The European Travel Information and Authorisation System, which was originally set for release in Q4 2026, is now widely expected to slip to 2027. Planners who are running European programmes that kick off in late 2026 or early 2027 need to factor this in, because ETIAS could come in mid-cycle on an active programme. The best approach is to assume ETIAS is just around the corner, and build it into your visa matrix for every visa-exempt nationality that’s heading to a Schengen destination. Then, from 2027 onwards, make sure you bake a six-week pre-travel authorisation window into every single European programme’s lead in time.
Creating a visa matrix for groups
A visa matrix, mapping every delegate’s nationality to the entry requirements for every country they’re heading to – is the foundation of compliant group travel. For multi-country programmes, you need to account for transit visas as well as destination visas, a delegate can be fully compliant for their destination but still be turned back at a connecting airport. Since the requirements can change overnight, your best bet is to get your visa information from a global DMC with in-market teams that can keep you up to date, not some static document that only gets updated once a year.
Duty of Care
How fragmented bookings blow a hole in duty of care
When delegates start making their own travel arrangements outside of the managed programme, a different flight, a hotel swap, some independently arranged transfers, the organiser loses visibility. And in an emergency, you can only account for and support the travellers your tracking system can actually see. Consolidating every booking into a single managed channel isn’t a cost-control measure, it’s a safety one.
Minimum duty-of-care standards for international events
ISO 31030 gives you a useful baseline for what “adequate” duty of care looks like for a corporate programme. In short, that means:
- A pre-trip risk assessment for every destination, updated within 30 days of the programme date
- All bookings within the managed DMC channel, no individual arrangements outside of the programme
- A traveller tracking system that’s active and tested before the first delegate heads out
- Medical evacuation and repatriation coverage confirmed in the programme insurance
- A 24/7 emergency response protocol documented, with known contacts at each stage
FCPA and the UK Bribery Act
Corporate hospitality and gifting is bang in the spotlight for both the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act. Enforcement under both has sharpened in recent years. Neither law requires you to have bad intentions for there to be an issue, a poorly documented gift or an undisclosed government attendee can create exposure even if nothing improper was intended.
Key compliance principles in practice
- Gifts: Write down the purpose, value and recipient for every gift you give. Don’t give cash or cash equivalents. Lower thresholds apply for government-adjacent attendees.
- Pre-approval workflow: For any event where government officials are invited, get documented approval from your legal or compliance team before issuing the invite.
- Attendee screening: For events in higher-risk jurisdictions, screen attendee lists against sanctions databases and PEP lists before confirming invites.
- Documentation: Don’t just keep a record of the reasons for every hospitality bill, make sure the business purpose is clear for every single one. We’re talking more than just “relationship building” here.
The Planner’s Complete Compliance Checklist
Getting Delegates In
- Make sure the visa rules are worked out for every nationality heading to every destination on your programme, that means a visa matrix for all of them
- Check that all those UK-bound delegates have got an ETA sorted out
- Figure out if ETIAS will be a requirement for your 2027 programme in Europe – don’t get caught out!
- Research which transit visas are needed for those connecting flights
Keeping Everyone Safe
- We need a risk assessment for every destination, and it’s gotta be ISO 31030-compliant
- All bookings are going through the DMC channel we manage
- Make sure traveller tracking is activated and has been tested with a dummy run
- Medical evacuation and repatriation insurance – we need to know that’s all in place
No Favouritism
- We’ve got a gift register set up with rules for what’s okay and what needs approval first
- Check who the government officials are attending: get that flagged up for a legal check
- Keep a record of the business purpose behind every hospitality bill: no more vague “relationship building”!
- After the event: do a compliance report and file it away somewhere safe
Want to put compliance first on your next international programme? Get in touch and we at Uniqueworld can help.
