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Despite its drastic decline during the pandemic, business tourism is on track to recover and continues to be an important contributor to the global travel industry.
As Covid-related travel restrictions began to ease, international tourism almost tripled from January to July 2022, compared to the same period in 2021, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) .
Business travel, which is a major part of international tourism, is expected to reach a global market value of $2 trillion by 2028, or almost three times its 2020 levels.
This is not surprising, given the extraordinary return on investment of business travel: for every dollar a company spends on business travel, it recoups $12.5 in revenue.
But what exactly is business tourism? What makes it so important? And what types of business tourism are there?
In this article, we’ll look at the answers to these questions – and more.
What is business tourism?
Business tourism simply means traveling for professional purposes, nationally or internationally. It is one of the main types of tourism and a major contributor to global economic growth and knowledge exchange.
Employees and executives travel for work for a number of reasons:
- Participate in internal meetings in different offices
- To meet business partners (customers or suppliers)
- To attend conferences, exhibitions, trade shows and other local or international business events
- To participate in company retreats or incentive trips
In all these cases, business tourism allows you to open new communication channels, exchange information more effectively and work better with others.
But is business tourism always strictly professional?
The short answer is no. While business trips used to be very short and focused, more and more travelers are now combining business and leisure tourism in what is now called “Bleisure”.
And indeed, in 2017, more than 60% of business trips included leisure activities, whether staying a few extra days on site, going to a museum or a concert, or even discover the local gastronomy.
Why is business tourism important?
So what makes business tourism so important, even in the digital age?
The answer is simple: nothing beats face-to-face communication when it comes to connecting with others and building trust. And we all know how important trust is in developing strong business partnerships.
Sharing the same physical space allows people to connect more directly and immediately than using Zoom and Google Meet. This, in turn, helps them:
- Better understand common goals, needs and challenges
- Collaborate more effectively
- Easily share knowledge and ideas
- Achieve big breakthroughs and solve problems faster
And indeed, business travel is still an essential part of doing business, even in the age of remote working – 60% of employees say the best way to learn on the job is with others colleagues, according to our own survey of 1,000 American workers. .
Business travel also helps employees be more productive: more than half of 16-24 year olds say they get the best business ideas when they travel. Others said that younger generations find it particularly inspiring to travel for work!
Additionally, 43% of all workers feel less stressed when traveling for business than when working from home or the office (compared to just 25% who feel more stressed). B2B marketers also find live events have a huge impact on demand generation: 68% say events are the most effective tactic for capturing new leads.
So business tourism is here to stay – and its economic impact continues to be significant.
Find out how to save money on business travel
What are the different types of business tourism?
Business travelers have different goals and motivations when traveling. This means that there are a few distinct types of business travel that the tourism industry must cater to:
Traditional business trips
In this type of business travel, employees and executives travel from place to place to meet with each other or their partners and clients.
This allows them to work together, collect important information and ideas, explore and develop new strategies, and share knowledge effectively.
Typical business tourism activities include organizing and attending presentations, meetings, formal dinners, etc.
Incentive trips
Some companies use all-expenses-paid vacations, called incentive trips, to reward top performers or build better relationships with their most important customers.
Such initiatives can help improve employee motivation and customer loyalty. Pleasure travel activities (rather than formal business meetings) are usually the most important part of incentive trips.
Conference and exhibitions
Conferences, exhibitions, congresses, trade shows and other events allow companies to make themselves known on a large scale in new markets and to meet many new partners and potential customers in a few hours or a few days.
These are proving even more popular, with 2023 already looking busy with event organizers and companies planning the best conferences to attend.
Many travel management companies such as TravelPerk offer an event management service to make things easier and streamline everything from booking accommodation and transportation to managing attendees and sharing trip details with them. . This helps ensure that everyone has a great travel experience.
How has business tourism evolved over the years?
Business tourism has been around for quite some time: After all, international business travel in the past was also a form of business tourism!
Fast forward to the 21st century, and for a long time business travel was booked by working with a traditional travel agency or contacting the airline directly.
In recent years, online reservations and specialized travel agencies have greatly simplified business travel. That said, many companies find managing business travel to be overwhelming. Especially when they use multiple websites to search for the best deals, have to book each element of the trip with different suppliers, and try to keep up with multiple bills and payments.
This is where a modern business travel management platform like TravelPerk can help simplify the lives of administrative staff, travel managers and business travelers. TravelPerk allows you to plan, manage and track bookings and expenses from a single online tool and ensure that all aspects of your employees’ future travels are taken care of.
Download TravelPerk’s ultimate guide to travel management to find out how you can optimize business travel management in your business, helping you save time and money.
