Some response consultants deal directly with clients lacking kidnapping coverage. “It’ll cost you at least $3,000 a day, and it’s going to be money up front,” said Christopher T. Voss, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and former lead international kidnapping negotiator at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Several security companies market antikidnapping training. For $650, Risks Incorporated in Miami, for instance, promises to teach students about the “real world of terrorism and kidnap and ransom!” And, yes, there’s an anti-kidnap app. BrickHouse Security, a surveillance emporium, sells Executrac software ($29.95 and a $19.95 monthly subscription), “a powerful, invisible application that turns any BlackBerry or smartphone into a covert GPS tracker with an emergency panic button.”

Mr. Voss questions the value of tracking technology. Kidnappers are “more and more aware these days that the phone can be tracked,” he said. He gave some advice to travelers visiting high-risk countries: “Get off the X, No. 1. The X is the spot where the kidnappers try and take you.” Mr. Voss argues that running away from abductors, if possible, can make sense.

“Kidnappers generally don’t pursue,” said Mr. Voss. “They’re not runners. And they are not going to shoot at you. It’s a waste of ammunition and they will probably miss anyway.”

He said he came to that controversial conclusion when a former Navy Seal trainer, a classmate of his at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, told him: “Let’s be honest, the Navy Seals, when we do renditions” — the spiriting of people from one nation to another — “effectively we’re doing kidnappings. Nobody is better at it than we are. We are the most organized, and not one person, not one of us, was assigned to chase anybody. If we’re not chasers, then the bad guys aren’t chasers.’”

Mr. Voss also urges business travelers to vary their routine, even if it means being intentionally late to appointments. “A good businessman is on time and consistent,” said Mr. Voss. “And a lot of businessmen are horrified at the idea of breaking out of consistency. If you vary your schedule by 10 minutes, 15 minutes, one way or the other, you can throw the bad guys off enough that they just might look for someone who is a little more precise.”

In a coming book, “International Security: Personal Protection in an Uncertain World,” Orlando Wilson, a security consultant, suggests another common-sense strategy for travelers: “Do not draw attention to yourself. Consider what you wear and drive, don’t be loud and rowdy. And don’t tell strangers too much about yourself.”