A friend and client recently shared with me an article from Hotel Interactive that referred to "The New Normal" in business travel.
In it, the author argues that the decline in business travel caused by the recession is likely to be permanent. It explains that the recession has forced companies to evaluate the real benefit of moving executives half way around the world at great expense just to conduct face-to-face meetings. Here's a link to the article.
My opinion...
Of course the recession has caused companies to rethink business travel, and every other expense for that matter. I myself have traveled only a fraction of the time in '09 compared to previous years, and our company has become even more streamlined than it already was.
But it would be a stretch to say that this trend represents a permanent change. Experts have been wrong in the past. Remember how a few years ago during the dot-com bubble, some experts claimed that the Internet was growing too fast and would collapse under its own weight? More recently, financial experts claimed that oil would hit $200/barrel. Both expert predictions were entirely wrong.
The economy will recover (if slowly) and people will forget and go back to their old ways... and in 10 years or so there will be another bubble, and we'll have another recession (hopefully a short one!), and another war, and the same experts will come out with similar predictions, just watch.
However I do agree with one point made in the article. The arrival of better, easier, smoother video conferencing tools could greatly reduce the need for business travel, that should be a real concern for industry players. You may not remember but the arrival of the the fax machine impacted the courier/messaging business permanently.
Want to plan for the "new normal?"
Consider this: install state-of-the-art video conferencing facilities at each hotel and market them locally… local businesses could simply drive to your hotel in Atlanta, and have a virtual meeting with their big corporate client in Seattle or London without having all the hassle and expense of traveling.
Have a great day!
