The question of whether business travel is hard work or a nice perk has been answered by a new survey carried out on behalf of travel management company Egencia.
The company surveyed 4,521 business travellers aged 18 and older in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, United Kingdom and United States between April and May 2017 and found that 70% of travellers enjoy travelling on business. The survey also found that the majority of travellers believe that face-to-face meetings are more productive.
Among the other findings is that half of those surveyed still want to talk to a person if there is a problem with their trip. This is particularly interesting in the light of the growing number of companies investing in chatbots or other services to automate some elements of customer service.
Our chart this week shows some of the survey's main findings.
Travel managers may be particularly interested in the prevalence of booking outside policy for hotels. Many companies have started to crack down on hotel spend and introduce caps, making it harder for business travellers in some cases to go rogue when it comes to accommodation. As always, there is a delicate balance between the strictness of a travel policy and levels of compliance.