Over a third (37 per cent) of business travellers regularly play away and eight per cent have confessed to joining the ‘mile high club’, though not with their regular partners. These risqué revelations were revealed through a survey of 500 travellers carried out by the Business Travel Show, which takes place in London next year.
The survey also showed how today’s business traveller is obsessed with technology. 39 per cent couldn’t survive a trip without their laptops and over a quarter (29 per cent) rely on their Blackberrys to get by abroad. And when asked what would improve train travel and hotel stays, 71 per cent answered free Internet to both.
The modern traveller is also a more demanding creature that wants more leg room, better food, fewer delays and improved customer service from airlines; better punctuality, cleanliness, increased space, cheaper tickets and friendlier staff from our train operators and free bottled water, comfortable beds, more luxurious toiletries and slicker check in from hoteliers.
One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is travellers’ propensity for ‘borrowing’ things from hotel rooms. More than half (56 per cent) never leave without packing the complimentary toiletries and 23 per cent have accidentally taken guest towels and dressing gowns. Nothing new there. But more bizarre borrows include a shower head, a Champagne bucket and ‘the chamber maid from the Manilla Marriott, though I returned her safely after a week together in Cebu.”
David Chapple, Business Travel Show event director, commented: “Who would have thought the UK business traveller was such an adventurous being! With 65 per cent also tagging holidays on to the end of their trips and 44 per cent sneaking partners along, it’s obvious to us that they’re certainly aware how to strike a happy work/life balance when travelling on business.”
The good news for the industry is that despite the credit crunch’s ever tightening hold over budgets, more than one fifth (20.2 per cent) of business travellers are refusing to take fewer trips (the average number of trips taken by respondents was 13 per annum). They are, however, spending less on them with 42 per cent working to a reduced budget.
Chapple continued: “With 200 world-leading suppliers of innovative business travel products and services in one hall at one time, the Business Travel Show promises to help companies save up to 20 per cent on their travel budgets without compromising on the quality of trips they organise on behalf of their travellers.”
The good news for the industry is that despite the credit crunch’s ever tightening hold over budgets, more than one fifth (20.2 per cent) of business travellers are refusing to take fewer trips (the average number of trips taken by respondents was 13 per annum). They are, however, spending less on them with 42 per cent working to a reduced budget.
Chapple continued: “With 200 world-leading suppliers of innovative business travel products and services in one hall at one time, the Business Travel Show promises to help companies save up to 20 per cent on their travel budgets without compromising on the quality of trips they organise on behalf of their travellers.”