They may want good work-life balance and access to a better
technology experience, but more than anything else, today's business travelers
want a better sense of security when traveling on behalf of their
organizations, according to a joint survey conducted by American Express Global
Business Travel and the Association for Corporate Travel Executives.
Building on a survey from last fall, the current survey
asked travel buyers how often travelers ask about work-life balance issues, about
traveler-centric technologies, about traveler safety and about alternative
suppliers. With only six months between the companion surveys, traveler concern
about safety and security grew faster than other topics. Last September, 65
percent of travel managers said questions about traveler safety and security
had increased over the previous 12 months. In the intervening six months, 56
percent of travelers said travel safety and security inquiries were still on
the rise.
Border crossing and immigration restrictions in and out of the
U.S.—an aspect of traveler safety and security that the first survey did not
explore—loomed large and likely contributed to that growth. It's a new
development that reached beyond the typical anxieties associated with
high-profile travel disruptions and terror incidents. Twenty-four percent of the
239 travel buyers surveyed were based in EMEA, 13 percent in Asia/Pacific and
63 percent in North America.
Amex GBT digital traveler VP Evan Konwiser suggested,
however, that it may be counterproductive to associate deepening anxieties too
closely with specific events and that assuming these anxieties will subside
over time may not serve the industry.
"If you had to highlight one point in this data, it's
the relative import of safety and security to the other issues we've been
tracking," he said. "We all know it's an issue, but the update from
last fall to this spring—I don't know if, as an industry, we are appreciating
how profound this change is and how fast it's moving." He said it's
possible that three years from now, this spike in concern about safety and
security will prove to be a reaction to a rash of specific incidents, but he
personally took a graver view. "We look at this survey to identify where
Amex GBT should be investing over the long term," Konwiser said.
"This data is beginning to suggest that this could be a macrotrend and
more important for a long-term strategy."
ACTE executive director Greeley Koch agreed with
that view, noting that business travel issues have at no other time in his
tenure in the industry been so closely tied to geopolitical activities. "The
one thing that I took away from the survey is that the world is changing faster
than ever," said Koch. "People are saying travel is tough and it's
tougher than ever with electronics bans and immigration bans. All of these
events come back to impact travel. Never in a time have we had these types of
political events affect travel to this degree. Travel managers have to become
more strategic in addressing these things, and the industry has to, as
well."