Business travel cuts accelerate
The cutting back of business travel has accelerated in recent months, according to a report by KDS.
The company, which provides travel and expense management systems, surveyed the opinions of 435 business travellers worldwide in May and found the following:
– 71% said their companies had significantly reduced their business travel
– 37% saw cuts made over six months ago, 54% within the past two-to-six months, and a further 9% saw cuts implemented just in the last month
– trips for sales and commercial relations are the likeliest to be allowed (45% of approved travel), followed by customer support trips (21%), conferences and presentation visits (20%) and intercompany meetings (10%)
– training-related trips come off worst, at just 4% of those approved in the recession
– 62% said that, given the choice, they would be happy to travel less
– 75% of respondents said they now had to work harder to justify their travel
– 38% said their companies allowed them to travel business class and, of these, 70% said that it was only for flights of five hours or more
– 58% said they had reduced the frequency of their hotel stays in the past six months: of these, 35% had cut one stay out of five, 30% had cut 2 stays out of five, and 22% had cut as many as three stays out of five
– if offered a choice, 73% would choose to fly business class on a long trip, rather than upgrading their hotel room on their arrival
– 7% were asked to share a room with a colleague.
“The intensity of the recession has undoubtedly impacted attitudes towards travel,” said Stanislas Berteloot, KDS marketing director.
“However, while superficially the outlook is bleak, in fact it is simply a change in demand patterns. Travel businesses that help employers save money, but in a way that still preserves employee morale, are the ones that stand to perform strongest in this recession and emerge in an excellent position once the economy improves.”
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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