Ever thought of limiting corporate business travel to save money? Do so at your company’s peril, says a recent study by Oxford Economics and the U.S. Travel Association which polled both 300 executives and 500 business travellers.

Entitled, “The Return on Investment of Business Travel,” the landmark study is one of the first to put a tangible return on investment for face-to-face meetings.

Dollar specifics? Executives who took part in the study cited customer meetings as having the greatest returns, in the range of $15 to $20 per dollar invested. The average return on conference and trade show participation? $4 to $6 per dollar invested. The majority of corporate business travellers identified internal company travel as key to professional development (66%), job performance (58%) and morale (56%).

Travel to trade shows also reveal its value: More than half of business travellers say five to 20% of their company’s new customers were the result of trade show participation.

Nearly 80% of executives indicate that incentive travel has a positive impact on employee morale and job satisfaction; and more than 70% on employee performance.

Companies would need to increase an employee’s total base compensation by 8.5% in order to achieve the same effect of incentive travel, according to executives.
meetingsmeanbusiness.com

Web Realities
85% of corporate executives perceive Web meetings and teleconferences to be less effective than in-person meetings with prospective customers, and 63% believe virtual meetings are less effective than in-person meetings with current customers. (source Oxford Economics)

Dollar for Dollar
Every dollar invested in business travel results in an average of $12.50 in increased revenue and $3.80 in new profits.