ways2work > How to do it > Re-thinking business travel > Business travel basics > Understanding business travel
Understanding business travel
Here we review who travels on business and the principal reasons that people travel on business.
Many people travel on business for a variety of reasons. Business travel is the practice of people traveling for purposes related to their work.
Small and medium sized enterprises
The RAC Foundation and the British Chambers of Commerce asked SMEs about why their employees travelled. Their focus was "the briefcase traveller" rather than "white van man"
Almost regardless of travel mode, people travelled most frequently for meetings with clients and customers, then meetings with other companies and and last of all, company-wide meetings.
The car was the principal mode of transport for business travel, followed by rail and air.
Company directors
A similar pattern of reasons for travel was found by a 2008 Institute of Directors survey of their members who used air travel for business.
The most prevalent reason for flying on business was to meet clients to negotiate sales (35 %). Then followed conferences and networking (25 %), then contacting staff in other locations (19 %) and finally meeting suppliers (8 %)
Respondents were asked where they flew to. 77 % flew to Europe, 48 % to the USA and 45 % within the UK, and 25 % to Asia-Pacific
The similar patterns from SMEs and company directors suggest that the principal categories of business travel are:
-
Meetings with clients or potential clients
-
Within-company meetings
-
Meetings with other companies
-
Conferences and networking