You Must Be Trippin'

Business Travel as a Barometer

August 5 2009 by Chris McGinnis

Later this month I will be traveling to the National Business Travel Association's annual convention in San Diego along with more than 4,000 travel industry execs.

I've been attending this all-important gathering for nearly 20 years and always walk away with tons of new information, trends, contacts, ideas and announcements to share with my readers.

(Stay tuned...)

The convention is nearly always held in late August and serves as an early kick-off to the business travel "season" which begins in earnest in early September and lasts until mid-November. It's the time of year when the kids are back in school, vacationers are back at work and business travelers reclaim hotel lobbies, airport gates and convention centers.

I think we'll all be hearing a lot more about business travel than usual in the coming months because it's seen by many as a good barometer for the direction of the overall economy. If companies are loosening their purse strings and sending more employees out on the road, it usually means the economy is warming up. And if they are tightening those purse strings, it's probably a sign that those "green shoots of growth" we keep hearing about might be wilting.

Global business travel spending has increased by more than 35 percent since 1998 and now totals nearly $1 trillion a year, according to a recent NBTA study. The U.S. alone spends about $261 billion a year on business travel, which includes air, car, hotel and food and beverage spending.

Crystal ball: Will you be traveling more or less during the upcoming business travel season compared to last year? Why or why not?

Please let me know in the comments boxes below and we'll see how our youmustbetrippin.com readers fare at predicting the fate of the economy.

Email This Comments (0)

Categories : Road Warriors

0 TrackBacks

http://www.youmustbetrippin.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-t.cgi/238

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry

0 Comments

Leave a comment

Name
Email Address
	Remember personal info?

Your comment may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.

Comments (You may use HTML tags for style)

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.

I certify that I am the author or sole owner of all content I am submitting in my comment. I have read, understand and agree to the Terms and Conditions of this Site.