Study: Leaders value business travel but seek more funding

Business travel gives companies a valuable return in today’s hybrid world, according to a report released today by American Express Global Business Travel and Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, but a majority of business leaders also said they are facing challenges in adequate funding and executive leadership support.

The report, Investing in Travel to Drive Business Growth: A Strategy for Thriving in Disruption, found most business leaders and managers think there is "tangible business value" to both external and internal business travel.

The majority of respondents also said meeting in person enables deal-making, company culture and innovation, although a majority said they are facing challenges in finding adequate funding and executive leadership support.

Six in ten respondents said their organisation encourages and supports employees’ travel as needed for business, while around one-third said their organisation allows travel but isn’t especially encouraging or supportive of it.

Based on responses from 425 audience members of Harvard Business Review who were qualified by their knowledge of their organisation's business travel, 84 per cent said their business realised tangible value from meeting in person with clients and customers.

Seventy one per cent of respondents said the same for meeting in person with co-workers and other employees in person, and the same percentage had a similar opinion of such meetings with suppliers and partners.

When travel was reduced during the Covid-19, 44 per cent of respondents noted the biggest problems as a result was weakened client relations and communication challenges. Forty-two per cent said they faced collaboration issues as a result of reduced travel, and 32 per cent said they had more difficulty solving customer problems.

RTX global corporate travel leader Colleen Kearney said in the report: "Deals are richer in so many ways when they are worked face-to-face, and these interactions show that travel is essential to business growth. As we get back to it and look at the relationships, and how they foster collaboration, and how collaboration leads to growth and getting things done, the return on investment is somehow greater when you stand up from the table versus ending the [video] call."

When asked about internal travel, a majority of respondents said their company works remotely, with only seven per cent indicating they had a completely in-office work model.

About half said they had a hybrid set-up, and 15 per cent said their organisation is primarily remote which has accelerated the need for travel that is not customer-facing.

Medtronic director of global sourcing, Shari Paul said in the report: "We need to make connections and engage face-to-face, whether it's our own internal teams getting together or attending conferences and trade shows or meeting one-on-one with health care professionals. It's so important."

Respondents to the report largely gave their own travel programmes middling marks, with only 36 per cent indicating their business's approach to business travel was "very effective". Nearly half said the approach was "moderately effective" and 13 per cent said it was only a little effective.

Funding was the biggest gap in terms of what respondents said was important versus their organisation's performance, with 78 per cent saying it was very important for their business travel programme to be adequately funded, but only 33 per cent saying their programme was funded to desirable levels.

Similarly, 82 per cent said it was important to be supported by executive leadership, but only 49 per cent said their organisation was doing so.

Key findings from the report:

• 84 per cent of respondents agree their organisations realise tangible business value from trips to meet with clients or prospects in person. 
• 88 per cent say in-person interactions are critical for ensuring positive, long-term relationships between coworkers.   
• 81 per cent agree that in-person interactions foster greater levels of innovation.  

Harvard Business Review Analytic Services fielded the survey in May 2023. Among the respondents, nearly two-thirds were from companies with at least 1,000 employees and 70 per cent had senior or executive management roles.

Geographically, 54 per cent of respondents were based in North America, 17 per cent in the Asia/Pacific region, 15 per cent in Europe, seven per cent in Latin America and 6 per cent in the Middle East and Africa.