"Who is the business traveller in 2016? This is the question that HRS is trying to answer in a study carried out in France at the end of February, by polling over 200 mobile professionals. The famous portrait of the business traveller - an exercise regularly undertaken by the major players in business travel, such asAdagio or DGAC - would describe a professional aged between 35 and 55 (64%), too "experienced", therefore, to benefit from the new youth card unveiled on Thursday by HOP! Air France... In the majority of cases (55%), family organisation enabled them to accept the trip. Contrary to popular belief, men are more likely to refuse business trips: this would have happened in 53% of cases among men, compared with just 36% among women business travellers.
So where do these nomadic professionals go? More often than not, their trips are limited to the borders of France (58%), or to Europe in 38% of cases. These areas are apparently "safer" than other regions of the world, which may explain why 67% of business travellers trust their company when choosing destinations. 37% of professionals also say they are prepared to refuse a destination if it involves risks.
Bleisure: the limits of a phenomenon
In this study, HRS also looked at the minor habits of travellers during their journeys. Almost half of those surveyed (47%) take advantage of their free time to get some fresh air and go for a walk (47%), or even explore the city (27%). Professional to the core, a quarter of travellers (25%) would use their free time to finalise their files. As for bleisure, that famous mix of business and leisure, the practice is not so widespread after all. In fact, a third of travellers (31%) feel that they have a very busy schedule which discourages them from extending their stay for the weekend. While 26% said they were tempted by this prospect, only 18% of professionals extended their weekend trip, most often citing professional reasons: "for 47% of them, it enabled them to forge better links with their counterparts and contacts on the ground".
