U.S. Business Travelers More Likely to Drive Than Fly to Meetings
Skift Take
It can be easy to forget that most U.S. business travelers aren't road warriors hitting multiple cities in a week. Sometimes we fixate too much on those who travel the most instead of the majority, who spend a day or two visiting clients or potential customers.
It's easy to picture a U.S. business traveler as a grizzled road-warrior crossing the country for days at a time, looking for business in cities across the country.
A research report from the Global Business Travel Association and American Express Global Business Travel, conducted by Rockport Analytics, paints a different picture: short trips, often by car, to visit clients in nearby cities.
Overall, the report shows that domestic U.S. business travel isn't growing much despite a relatively strong economy.
Business travel revenue represented three percent of U.S. gross domestic product in 2016, totaling $424 billion. Trip volume grew 1.2 percent in 2016 while spending dipped slightly on a per trip basis, falling 1.1 percent.
The state of business travel remains strong in the U.S., even if growth has remained somewhat stagnant, when compared to the past.
