Lighten up on the travel policy and watch 'em soar!
Want a successful convention? Suggest to those companies sending participants to ease up on travel policies. New research by the Global Business Travel Association finds that the more restrictive the policy, the less successful the business outcome.
GBTA just released its Global Business Traveler Study 2012, which found that, on average, 67% of business travelers are visiting new destinations although mainly traveling domestically to do so. Other findings:
- The majority of business trips, 33% on average, are used for meeting with colleagues, 18% for sales, 21% for training and industry conferences and 9% for other uses.
- Business travelers around the world tend to be college educated, 42 years old on average and two-thirds are male.
Another finding shows travelers who are governed by a mandated program are significantly less successful with their business travel than those that are less managed or not managed at all. Under "managed programs," business travelers must follow the organization’s stated travel policies and use the providers or agencies chosen by their organization. In the U.S., 21% of travelers are under “mandated” travel programs. A third of U.S. business travelers are “unmanaged,” having no stated guidelines. Nearly half (47%) fall in between or “under guidelines” where they may have to follow policies but are only encouraged to use preferred providers, or must use preferred providers but are only encouraged to follow policy.
In this report, GBTA introduced the GBTA Business Travel Success Index, which measures how well business travelers are able to reach their goals when traveling for work; 100 represents complete success.
According to the report, travelers under a mandated program have a BTSI of 72.7, compared 76 for those who under guidelines and 78.6 for those who are in unmanaged programs. Of the countries represented in this research, the U.S. has the highest BTSI score, 76.2, followed by India , 75.3; Australia, 74.5; and Canada, 74.4. Details: www.gbta.org.
