Business Travel Tips

Spending on business travel in the United States is expected to increase in 2012 according to a study by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA).
The GBTA’s report, “Business Travel Quarterly Outlook”, which monitors business travel spending among U.S. companies, predicts an increase of 4.6 percent over 2011.

This is a positive sign for the travel industry and also for the health of the U.S. economy as a whole.

However, the report reveals that the number of trips is expected to decline by 0.8 percent in 2012. That means most of the 4.6 percent increase will come from rising travel costs.

That seems in contrast with what a recent research from Deloitte LLP found. Last September, the market research company found that 85 percent of the 1,000 business travelers surveyed expected to take the same number or more business trips in 2012 than in 2011. (source)

The average room prices of 4 and 5-star luxury hotels has significantly dropped in the first half of 2011 when compared to the same period in 2010, according to the The Hotels.com’s Hotel Price Index (HPI).

Las Vegas recorded the largest decrease among all destinations — a 22% drop for the average room prices of 4-star luxury hotels.

In Europe, the largest fall in the room price of 4-star hotels was reported in Madrid (- 8%).

In Asia, Shanghai and Tokyo posted very significant decreases, with room prices for 4 and 5-star hotels in Shanghai fallen 19% and 17% respectively and with the average room prices of the 4-star hotels in Tokyo down 5 percent.

HPI is an index based on bookings made on Hotels.com sites and tracks the real prices paid per hotel room for about 125,000 properties around the world.

Dallas/Fort Worth, New York JFK and Atlanta are the best airports in the United States for providing Wi-Fi and other tech amenities, according to a study conducted by PCWorld magazine.

The study, “The 20 Best Airports for Tech Travelers”, identified the most tech-friendly airports, terminals and airlines in the U.S.

In order to carry out the study, PCWorld researchers visited 3300 gates, where they counted more than 17,000 electrical outlets, 5,000 USB ports, and 1,350 charging stations and conducted performance tests of Wi-Fi and cellular broadband service, in the 40 busiest airports in the U.S.
PCWorld found that the top 20 U.S. airports for tech amenities were as follows:

Dallas/Fort Worth
New York Kennedy
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Detroit Metro
Sacramento International
Oakland International
New York LaGuardia
Salt Lake City
Baltimore/Washington Thurgood Marshall International
San Francisco International
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Raleigh/Durham International
Nashville International
Minneapolis/St. Paul International
Chicago Midway
Cleveland Hopkins International
Los Angeles International
Seattle/Tacoma International
Kansas City International
Portland (Ore.) International
(source PCWorld).
Also PCWorld, on the other hand, found that Denver International, Washington Dulles International, and Boston Logan International offer meager amenities per gate, and slow wireless service.

Global consulting and auditing firm Deloitte & Touche released a survey looking into the business travel habits based on the age of the traveler.

According to the study, young people are planning to travel for business more often than older people in 2012.

As the survey shows that more than 60 percent of business travelers expect to travel about the same in 2012 as 2011, 27 percent of those in the age group 18-44 said they expect to travel for work more often in 2012 than this year.
This figure decreases to 16 percent among business travelers 45 years and older.
This Deloitte & Touche’s study was an online survey conducted among 1,000 business travelers.

According to FlightStats, 80.8% of flights in North America were on-time in November. The same source says that airlines axed 6,692 flights in November compared to 9,304 in October.

Among the major airlines, Delta Air Lines was the best performing one in the month with 88.25% of flights on-time. Air Canada, with a 65.83 percent on-time rate, was last on the list among the North American carriers (Southwest with a 76% was the last among the U.S. carriers).

The best-performing airport in North America was Salt Lake City International with 89% of flights on-time. It is followed by Portland, Ore. (88.41 percent) and Minneapolis/St. Paul (88.29 percent). The worst performances were at Miami International (60.01 percents of flight on-time) and Dallas/Fort Worth (62.23 percent on-time).

In Europe, London Stansted was the best performing airport with 88.13 percents of its departures on-time.
Tokyo’s Haneda International was the best performing airport in Asia in November with with a 94.95 percent on-time rate.