Businesses that continued to send employees on the road during the recession were more profitable than those that cut back on business travel, a new study out today has found.
The study, conducted by Oxford Economics and commissioned by the U.S. Travel Association, attempted to show how travel can affect a company’s bottom line just as businesses are starting to once again spend money on trips to meetings and conferences.
For every dollar invested in business travel, U.S. companies generated $9.50 in revenue and $2.90 in profit, according to the study, based on an analysis of government data on 14 industries over an 18-year period.
An accompanying survey of 298 business travelers conducted in November found that 57% believed cutting their travel budgets during the economic downturn hurt their company’s performance. Only 4% said it helped.
“When we analyzed data from the Great Recession and recovery, we learned that companies that invested the most in business travel tended to grow the fastest,” said Adam Sacks, managing director of Oxford Economics, which conducted the analysis as a follow-up to a 2009 study.
Spending on business travel hit bottom in 2009 as companies reacted to dropping profits by cutting out trips.
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Source: Nancy Trejos (2013). Study: Cutting business travel can hurt profits, USA Today http://www.usatoday.com/story/hotelcheckin/2013/05/07/business-travel-spending-hotels/2140347/ published May 07, 2013. Viewed May 10, 2013,