Travelers to employers: Get serious about safety

Tuesday, 24 Sep, 2013 0

Travel is a fun and rewarding experience, but being away from home and family is also stressful, even for the most frequent business traveler. Minimizing attendees’ concerns can help them focus on the purpose for which they are gathered and make your meeting more productive, especially when attendees are not seasoned travelers.

Personal safety is the top concern of business travelers, a new study from the Global Business Travel Association finds.

More than three out of four travelers (76%) said it is important to them to feel their employers take their safety and security seriously.

A close second is the need to stay in touch with friends and family during travel, cited by 75%.

Many also miss their normal routines: 65% cited maintaining a healthy diet as a key concern, while 46% said sticking to their exercise routine is a priority.

Dealing with air travel delays and cancellations is the most stressful part of the trip, cited by 66% of respondents, but the airlines can take credit for all three of the top stressors, including also long airport layovers (49%) and connecting flights (45%).

Forty percent of business travelers also object to traveling late at night (44%), on the weekend (42%), or early in the morning (40%). (Meeting planners take note. What time does your meeting start and end?)

The study highlights the importance of "taking into account not just the cost of travel, but travel’s impact on employees," said Michiel Verhaagen, AirPlus International’s EVP of sales EMEA.

The GBTA surveyed 675 business travelers from 10 countries in Europe for its 2013 European Business Traveller Well-Being Study, which was sponsored by AirPlus International, a provider of payment and reporting systems.

The report also found that business travelers are increasingly concerned about the environment. More than half usually recycle paper, plastic or glass (58%), and book hotels close to their meetings destinations so they can walk (52%) or take public transportation (45%).

The online survey was conducted between June 19 and July 5, 2013 with 675 business travelers in Belgium, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, the UK and the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden).

Cheryl

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