Every Step You Take

Reap the rewards of managing your own business travel.

- Holly Riddle

THE MODERN BUSINESS TRAVELER lives in a world of opportunity. With travel trends growing alongside evolving technologies, anything is possible. However, while brands have made strides to meet even the slightest business travel needs and business trips are more customizable than ever, the root of the matter remains the same. Business travel is all about — and relies on — its human aspect.

After all, 42 percent of corporate travelers head out on the road with the main goal of developing and maintaining client and customer relationships. The statistic comes from the latest white paper from the Association of Corporate Travel Executives, which also points toward a greater trend in business travel of focusing on the needs of the actual traveler rather than just the client, using the resources available to turn a once-stressful form of travel into an enjoyable experience. Planning or overseeing your business travel, then, is not merely about getting in front of the client; it’s about making every step of the way as productive as possible, either on a business or a personal level.

Perhaps the industry can thank millennials for the inclusion of the traveler within the human aspect of business travel. According to one survey from MMGY Global, millennials took an average 7.7 business trips in the past year and expect to increase business travel by 11 percent in the coming year. Pushing the envelope further, more than half say an increase of 11 percent is not enough. They want even more travel, noting it has a highly desirable, positive impact on their job satisfaction.