Compliance with travel policy differs dramatically around the globe if research from Amercian Express Global Business Travel is to be believed.
The study, Traveler 360, found that the prevalence of business travel policies depends on where your company is based. In India, 90% of companies have a policy while just 67% in Germany have them. In the UK this figure is 74%, in France, 69%.
The survey also asked those travellers about whether the policy was strict or lax. The chart below shows the percentage of travellers who comply with policy 100% of the time, depending on whether their policy was strict or lax.
Among the UK business travellers responding to the survey, some 94% said they would book out of policy if it meant minimising any negative impact to their health and well-being. This compares to a figure of 81% in the US.
The figures are almost the reverse of the likelihood that a company has a policy. These findings clearly present a challenge to travel buyers tasked with managing multinational programs when the expectation of having a policy and the likelihood of adhering to it is so widely different.
The research compiled the views of 2,000 travellers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore and India and was carried out at the end of 2017.