FOR well over a century, people have
predicted that technology will make business travel obsolete. In 1889 Jules
Verne imagined that the “phonotelephote”, or “the transmission of images by
means of sensitive mirrors connected by wires,” would replace overseas
meetings. In the 21st century far-flung communication is no longer science
fiction. Yet far from stowing their suitcases, putting away their passports and
signing in to Skype, the corporate world’s “road warriors” are clocking up more
miles than ever.
According to a report by the Global
Business Travel Association (GBTA), firms around the world will spend a record
$1.25 trillion this year on sending employees on work trips. This largely
reflects growing business confidence. In the downturn following the global
financial crisis, suspending foreign jaunts was a quick way to cut costs. Now,
firms are looking to grow, by sending staff out to hunt for deals.
A recent survey by Morgan Stanley, a
bank, found that 63% of American firms increased their travel budgets for 2015.
A similar proportion will increase spending again next year. Another survey, by
BusinessTravelNews, suggests that management consultants and makers of
expensive hardware remain the biggest spenders on travel among American
companies. And businesses and other organisations in China will, collectively,
soon be spending more than their American counterparts, the GBTA reckons.
Even as they increase their budgets,
corporate-travel managers continue to seek ways to pinch pennies on each
individual trip. A survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives
(ACTE) found that over the past two years firms have become stingier about
letting staff upgrade their flights or hotel rooms, and stricter about demanding
that all trips go through their centralised booking systems.
Yet one obvious way of cutting costs
is going largely unexplored: making use of the “sharing economy”. According to
the ACTE, over half of firms have ruled out alternative suppliers of
accommodation such as Airbnb, mainly citing their “duty of care” to employees.
Carol Neil, a travel manager at Nomura, says the bank vets all the suppliers of
travel services before letting staff use them, and so far it has not approved
any sharing-economy firms, because of doubts about safety. Indeed, hotel rooms
are built to a standard design, with safety in mind, whereas Airbnb hosts’
homes may contain unexpected hazards.
What of the road warriors
themselves? As their employers expect them to do more schlepping around the
world with fewer perks, life on the road has become tougher. Stricter airport
security—business travellers’ biggest gripe—eats up time and patience; and as
more airlines offer in-flight Wi-Fi, the chance of enjoying a few hours of downtime
is evaporating.
Yet despite this, most executives
say they enjoy life on the road. According to the GBTA around half are happy
with the amount of travelling they do, while over a third says they would like
to do more. This may be because the daily grind back at base has got a lot
tougher too. An executive from a big professional-services firm, who flies
around 20 times a year, says that modern office life has got so
unpleasant—“trying to run a business from an open-plan desk, higher levels of
expectation and having to inspire the hell out of people merely to stop them
from being tempted away”—that he looks forward to foreign trips simply to take
a break from it all.
