Global traveler's guidebook

Black Enterprise, Dec, 1998 by Valerie Lynn Gray

When you're traveling to an unfamiliar country on business, it helps to know a few of the basics beforehand to make your trip less stressful. The Business Traveler's World Guide (McGraw-Hill, $19.95) by Philip Seldon gives you the information you'll need--updated every two years--on more than 130 countries and 150 cities around the world.

The compact 668-page book is organized into global regions and includes phone numbers of business-oriented restaurants, hotels, auto rentals, nightspots and meeting centers; contact information for key businesses, banks, news agencies and stock and commodity exchanges; information a bout climate, suitable clothing and business protocol; and a foreign language dictionary.

Look up South Africa, for example, and you'll find that a business suit should be worn to all meetings and a formal suit or dress should be worn to evening functions. Because theft is common, however, it's noted that "visitors should not make a show of affluence." In the Bahamas, business attire is more casual because of the hot weather, and some businessmen forgo jackets. A lightweight suit is recommended for the first meeting and all government visits, a dinner jacket for formal occasions.