Travel Industry Roundup | October 28
Kids today, right? What, with their constant texting, and loud music, and higher than average frequency of business travel. More on that – flight delays and corporate travel data systems too – in this week’s roundup.
Millennials Are Now the Most Frequent Business Travelers
MMGY Global’s Portrait of Business Travelers survey revealed some noteworthy aspects of traveler preferences and habits. Skift’s coverage highlights the finding that, “on average, business travelers took 6.8 trips in the last year, [while] Millennials took 7.4 business trips … compared to 6.4 for Gen Xers and 6.3 for baby boomers.” Millennials are not only traveling more than their peers, they also have different preferences. “Younger travelers are less likely to book air travel based on loyalty program perks, and more likely to book based on which type of experience they prefer,” and are also “more likely to use roomshare services like Airbnb than their older counterparts.”
Business Travelers Expect Travel Volume to Increase
Business Travel News picks up on a another finding from MMGY Global’s survey: better economic conditions and a widespread belief in the value of in-person interaction means that business travelers expect to go on more trips in 2017 than in the preceding year. A significant portion of survey respondents (42%) reported that they want to go on more trips. Millennials are even more enthusiastic travelers, with 61% saying that they wanted to travel more.
LaGuardia Tops List of America’s Worst Airports for Delays
There’s one thing sure to dampen any traveler’s enthusiasm: flight delays. Recently released data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics ranks America’s 29 highest-traffic airports by on-time performance, and for the second year in a row, New York’s LaGuardia comes in last. Newark and John F. Kennedy International also appeared in the bottom four. You know what they say about New York: if you can make it here, you can make it anywhere (just don’t expect to make it out on time).
Should You Build a Data Tool Instead of Buying One?
Business Travel News explores some of the considerations that an organization should make when creating a system for reporting on travel and expense data. “Depending on a travel byer’s background and the company’s structure, managing data might fall outside his or her domain. Even so, many have marshalled the resources within their own companies and combined them with a few external building blocks to develop data systems that offer views into savings, compliance and supplier performance.” Rocketrip’s recently announced Insights dashboard is a prime example of the customized data tools that travel managers are beginning to utilize.
Want to learn more about leveraging your company’s travel data? Check out this guide to Strategic KPIs for Reducing Employee Travel Costs.
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