Leadership

Cuts in Business Travel on Both Sides of the Atlantic

By Jessica Stillman

Updated on: June 24, 2008 / 2:23 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

The Find: Fed up travelers avoided 41 million trips last year, costing the U.S. economy $26 billion, and things aren't much better across the pond.
The Source: A recent survey from the Travel Industry Association (TIA).

The Takeaway: Polling firms Peter D. Hart Research Associates and The Winston Group asked one thousand travelers how conditions at America's airports are affecting their travel habits on behalf of TIA. The results: "more than 100,000 travelers each day are voting with their wallets by choosing to avoid trips."

Delays, cancellations and inefficient security screening are leading travelers to stay home or find alternate means of reaching their destinations. The loss to the economy is not limited to the airlines, TIA asserts, but ripples out to cost $5.6 billion to hotels and $3.1 billion to restaurants. And the situation is unlikely to improve soon. More than 60 percent of respondents thought air travel was going to continue to deteriorate.

Reporting on the findings, the British site Management Issues points out that the situation isn't looking much rosier across the Atlantic. British travel group, Hogg Robinsion, has released its latest financial figures, which show firms:

Cutting back on foreign travel, with financial services firms in particular controlling their spending on events and travel, although demand from smaller businesses was also in decline.

Management Issues adds that various reports suggest that many blue chip British firms are cutting back sharply on travel expenses. A number of investment banks are reportedly even "putting the brakes on taxi travel and corporate entertainment."

The Question: Are you and your team traveling less than last year?

(Image of cancelled and delayed flights from JasonJT, CC 2.0)