AmEx Study: Business Travel is Live and Well

Here are my reasons why until recently I thought business executives might be travelling less these days:

1) Fears of an impending recession might motivate companies to cancel those less-than-absolutely-necessary trips.

2) Advances in technology have made webinars and teleconferences an acceptable alternative to traveling.

3) And "international terrorism" also lingered somewhere in the back of my mind as a distant third reason.

But I´ll admit I was wrong.

93% of the businessmen and women in a study conducted by American Express Business Travel said they either traveled the same (53%) in 2007 as in 2006, or more (40%).

People still travel on business not because it´s a "prestigious" or "fun" thing to do but because they simply have to.

Yes, there are things you can settle over the phone. Yet there are other matters for which you really need to sit in a room with your clients or partners for long hours and talk things over face-to-face. Many business negotiations fall into that category.

Responders to the American Express survey said they travel to "attend training (46%), conferences and seminars (46%) and conduct client meetings across the globe (43%)."

Traveling also provides the opportunity to broaden one´s view and gain a new perspective (67%) which cannot be accomplished by teleconferences alone.

Most of the downside of business travel involves the hassle of going through the airports and catching the flights on time. Flight delays and cancellations emerged as the worst thorn on the side of business travelers (60%) followed by waiting in queues (57%) and hanging around the airports for the next flight (45%).

And once they reach their destination, there is nothing businessmen and women want more than a comfortable bed (59%), followed by a clean bathroom (49%) and a convenient hotel location (46%).

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