Much like George Clooney’s character in Up in the Air, business travel is a bit of a paradox. Sure, busy road warriors complain about living out of a suitcase, but there’s also a kind of perverse pride and even romance to the frequent flyer lifestyle of perpetually jetting from city to city.
So as more and more work goes digital and business people need to make fewer and fewer physical trips to get things done, how will well-traveled execs react to being increasingly grounded? The answer, a new survey reveals, is happy news for airport regulars, but lousy tidings for visitors’ bureaus.
When webcasting and virtual events firm ON24 asked 3,756 registrants to this year’s VUE2011 conference (hosted somewhat incongruously by San Francisco Giants Pitcher Brian “Fear the Beard” Wilson) how they feel about seeing less of the interior of hotels and airports as work grows more wired, many said they’d be happy to go virtual rather than travel to several major American cities.
Virtual events vendors will be thrilled with the exact findings. Texas tourism officials, not so much. The numbers reveal that hefty percentages of respondents would rather go virtual than visit:
- Houston – 49.3 percent
- Los Angeles – 41.7 percent
- Orlando – 37.5 percent
- Miami – 33.3 percent
- Chicago – 27.8 percent
While the figures can’t be flattering for these cities, they primarily reflect the sorry state of business travel, with 92 percent of executives telling ON24 business travel is failing to improve, and almost half saying it is getting worse. The execs’ reasons for dreading flying will be familiar to anyone who has been on a plane recently: 53 percent fear the middle seat, while 50.6 percent and 40.9 percent respectively said delays and security lines were the worst aspect of flying.
“In today’s digital age, professionals increasingly prefer virtual events and webcasts to traveling to in-person events,” commented Denise Persson, ON24’s chief marketing officer. “With virtual communication, there are no logistical barriers interfering with getting the information you need.”
Would you prefer to a digital event to a quick trip to Houston?
Image courtesy of Flickr user {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}.
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Air travel is no longer fun! In the last two years it has become more of a chore than it is worth. With all of the security measures, which I understand are necessary, and the manhandling you receive from the airlines. If you can go virtual, do.
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I completely agree, it save companies money, time and hassle. And with virtual meetings and video conferencing, there is no longer any need for travel!
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FACE-TO-FACE MEETINGS NECESSARY – HOW TO MANAGE TRAVEL
I agree that business travel has become challenging (middle seat, delays, security lines, and cost etc.). I also agree that tools such as web conferencing, video conferencing etc. have made it easier to connect virtually. However, there is a need for face-to-face meetings. Some of the solutions are:
- hire in locations close to customers to reduce air travel
- reduce travel but do not eliminate travel (i.e., instead of traveling to the customer site multiple times, make fewer trips)
- ensure fewer people travel (e.g., instead of the sales manager flying with the sales rep, let the rep travel alone).
In business-to-business situations there is always value in face-to-face meetings.
Completely agree, Shankar. Have you noticed the proliferation of body language experts on the news and TV talk shows? It’s become a form of entertainment to analyze whether people’s expressions and gestures reinforce or contradict their words—and it validates my opinion that when it comes to sales, we need to get back to the basics.
Regardless of the product or service, people buy from people they know, like and trust. There’s no faster way to trust than your face.
More here on my blog about the power of face-to-face: