Skift Take
Nothing says you care about a client like traveling a long way to see them. But post-Covid, a culmination of trends could force companies to think of new ways to make them feel special.
The days of traveling for a single meeting could soon be numbered as the pandemic shifts priorities and budgets when it comes to corporate travel. The lone meeting may soon be relegated to an extravagance of the past.
Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson underscored this possibility recently in an article primarily about his pharmaceutical company's race to find a Covid-19 antidote. But speaking at a webinar that discussed the impacts of coronavirus, Rosemary Maloney, global travel manager at software company Sprinklr, brought up Hudson's comment — and she agreed with it.
“The article said this was the end of the one-client trip, which I think is really true. We’re going to be doing a lot of sales trips that will combine clients more, they’ll be more active,” she said during Goldspring Consulting’s Travel Buyers Talk Task Force & Return To Travel event.
“It’s not going to be fly in and leave the same day. It might be two or three days, but you’ll get more work done in that time," Maloney added, noting there'll also be fewer staff flying for internal meetings in the future.
Nearly all companies will likely see some degree of shift to virtual meetings, particularly in the short term. But with many company travel bans still in place, is now the right time to debate the culture of travel?
Back to Normal?
Travel managers, and corporate travel agencies, may well already be debating this topic as they finalize the technical aspects of the return to travel. These have centere
