Business travel survey roundup

By Margaret Craig-Bourdin

Technology might be bringing down borders, but it’s certainly not doing the same for travel expenses. If anything, business travel is on the upswing, according to a recent CAmagazine survey.

The survey, conducted online from January to March, was designed as an informal follow-up to a much larger American Express study that found Canadian executives now spend more than $24 billion annually on business and travel expenses (January/February, p.14; www.CAmagazine.com/travelexpenses). Since that is almost double the amount spent nine years ago, we wanted to see specifically how our readers have been faring in that area.

The poll drew 137 responses -- 92% of them CAs. In keeping with the Amex study, 43% of respondents said their travel budget has grown over the past five years, while only 23% have seen a decrease. And although 81% said technology is sometimes used to cut down on business travel, 51% still go on more business trips than they did five years ago.

Also in the technology sphere, online booking – one of the cost-cutting strategies suggested by Amex -- does not seem to have caught on in a big way, since only 36% use it. Similarly, just over a third of respondents said they use corporate cards (which Amex sees as a good way to consolidate spending) to pay for their expenses. More than half (57%) use personal cards.

On the upside, more than three-quarters of respondents’ companies have travel policies in place, and 60% said those policies are reviewed by senior management either annually or regularly. Still, 14% said the policies are never reviewed, and 27% didn’t know. In any case, only 2% of companies have made radical changes to the policy over the past five years.

Appointing a dedicated resource to manage compliance with the travel policy was yet another cost-saving strategy identified by Amex. Here, only slightly more respondents said their company had such a resource, compared with those that did not (43% vs. 40%). And while 72% of respondents said they personally monitor or help manage travel expenses at least some of the time, almost half said their compliance with their travel budget was never reviewed with them. But maybe that’s because they’re always on or under budget. For although more than three-quarters of respondents make at least three business trips a year and stay in three- or four-star hotels, 83% sit in economy class.

To view the survey, visit www.CAmagazine.com/travelwebsurvey07.