New survey results released by Booking.com this week say a third of business travellers would take a lower paying role if it means they travel more for their job. Having experienced a year when I travelled at least once a month I wouldn't say that I can whole-heartedly agree. But I can certainly see the appeal of travelling regularly regardless of whether it's for work, pleasure or both.
As the OTA's Ripsy Bandourian says, "No longer seen as lost time or a career inconvenience, business travel is increasingly seen as an opportunity to expand horizons, find inspiration and progress in a career."
If travel has this much value and means so much to employees then it will put travel policies in the spotlight. Flexibility, technology and/or integrating different travel products into the programme could be a draw and the prospect of travel could be used as a "bargaining chip" during the recruitment phase. Concur's president Mike Eberhard recently told me that travellers want simplicity or have "so many options to go outside". At the time I understood he was talking about booking options but I realise now it could mean that person going to another business altogether.
We also sometimes forget that aside from purpose of trip, there is always a mix of business and pleasure when it comes to the traveller's downtime. 62% of the 12,700 people that answered Booking.com's survey want to do as many activities as possible so allowing time, itineraries or even a booking option for sightseeing may be seen as contributing to a work-life balance and employee well-being. Although there is duty of care to carefully consider, as Keesup Choe discusses in his latest Expert piece.
Others want to minimise their transit time to get the most out of a destination which puts even more focus on punctuality and reliability.
Travel risk policies are also judged, according to the speakers on our webinar last week. Too relaxed and travellers feel unsafe and it looks like employers don't care; too unreasonable and it's suffocating, says Dom Chester of Drum Cussac.
So far traveller-centricity has mainly focused on allowing people to take more control of their travel itinerary but it appears travel policies could be used to recruit or retain staff. We'll be exploring the possibilities in our webinar with Scott Gillespie and other industry commentators on Friday 10th February.