Business Travel Drives Bottom-Line Results

Study shows that cutting back on business and incentive travel could have a negative impact on corporate profits and growth.

In this challenging economy, businesses are making difficult choices about how to prudently manage expenses and resources. Until now, business leaders lacked hard data and largely relied on anecdotes from salespeople that face-to-face meetings help build relationships, increase sales and drive growth. A comprehensive new economic analysis conducted by Oxford Economics reveals that companies should think twice before cutting back on business travel.

The research study, sponsored as well by the U.S. Travel Association, establishes the first clear link between business travel and business growth as American businesses are planning their 2010 budgets and federal policymakers are looking to stimulate the American economy. For every dollar invested in business travel, the study says, businesses experience an average $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.

The study found that curbing business travel can have a strong negative impact on corporate profits. The average business in the U.S. would forfeit 17 percent of its profits in the first year of eliminating business travel, and it would take more than three years for profits to recover.

Details of the study are available on the USTA website at www.tia.org. They are also available on the website of the Destination & Travel Foundation, a combined effort of the U.S. Travel Association and Destination Marketing Association International at www.destinationtravel.org.