So what is business travel?
According to the Statista, business travelers took 462 million business trips in 2017. And that number is expected to continue rising. Their reports also not that annual spending on business travel exceeds $300 Billion a year. Yes, Billion. CreditDonkey reported that 1.3m business trips a day happen each year (and the TSA Security lines seem to validate that! :-). The bottom line is that business travel comprises a huge part of our society, our economy and many professional’s daily lives.
So what exactly is business travel? Well, I am glad you asked; let’s define Business Travel.
Business Travel is what occurs when employees of a company fly, drive, or take the train
away from their office (be that an actual building or their home) for some company related activity. Often this involves meeting w/ a customer, visiting a project site, installing something, training, or meeting w/ staff in other locations.
Who typically travels for business?
It’s pretty varied, really. Nowadays, the world is “flat” as they say, and everyone seems to travel. That said, the types of jobs that typically involve the most travel are:
- Salespeople
- Sales Engineers
- Executives
- Field Engineers
- Project Managers
- Trainers
- Consultants
Additionally, it’s not uncommon to see doctor’s, nurses, and other medical professionals in the air these days. And often lawyers, politicians, athletes, clergy, military, academics, and journalists conduct business travel on a regular basis. In fact, many professions live in the air these days.
What’s life like as a business traveler?
The life of business travel is not as glamorous as it’s often cracked up to be. The reality is that you are often flying from customer to customer or project to project, sleeping in a
foreign bed, in a different time zone and praying your flight doesn’t get cancelled or that you get the upgrade.
The life of a business traveler can be fun though. Especially, if you follow my 101 Travel Hacks for the Business Traveler. Check them out and level up your business travel game or check out some of the other travel tips listed in the rest of this blog.
Other interesting facts about business travel
- CreditDonkey notes that the average age of the business traveler is 45.9 years old.
- They also note that all this travel results in about 12 trips a year (which feels right to me).
- Women comprise about 47% of the business travelers, according to the same report
- And apparently, those willing to travel for business earn a bit more money. CreditDonkey notes that the median income was just under $88k/yr compared to those who don’t travel at 55k/yr. There is a definite upside to business travel as I note in my earlier post.
While you are here, be sure to check out my Travel Gear page, where I share some the best travel gear that I personally use and recommend while traveling for work.
Or if you like funny travel memes, check out my Travel Memes page and prepare to chuckle. Especially if you are travel pro.
