Business travellers rely on electric alternatives to cut spending

Even though the current signs suggest that the economy is rebounding from the recent global recession, most of the business travellers will still continue to seek alternatives to travelling, provided by technology.

A recent survey conducted by Kotler Marketing Group, in collaboration with the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE), reports a detailed examination of enterprise travel spending, including breakdowns by industry sector, business size and region. The research includes a thorough analysis on the increasing use of electronic alternatives, such as web and video conferencing, to avoid doing travelling.

The report shows that more than half or 55 per cent of the respondents are now relying heavily on electronic alternatives than before to attain their travel spending reduction goals. Companies using conferencing saw a dramatic decrease on their travel expenditures in 2009.

The survey also reveals that most of the respondents are expecting continued use of electronic alternatives for several purposes, like team meetings. More than 40 per cent of them see more companies shifting from costly sales-related travels to conferencing over the next coming years.

However, despite of the growing popularity of conferencing, there are still fears and uncertainty on the efficiency of this alternative as replacement for travelling. For instance, when asked about the effectiveness of web-conferencing for five different forms of meetings, respondents agreed to only one meeting type where web-conferencing would be effective enough.

Megan Costello, Interim Executive Director of ACTE, commented that business travellers are still expected to balance the conflicting pressures of cutting travel costs with the need to take a trip. The Kotler survey provides a comprehensive breakdown of the findings by company size, geography and industry; and presents key ideas on travel alternatives and spending strategies for 2010.