Fail This Test and Our Industry Dies

Covid-19 has cratered the business travel industry. It has created deep anxieties that go to the heart of traveling. It is a giant foe, one that we're all figuring out how to fight. Great progress has been made by travel suppliers on the health and hygiene front. Travel management companies and technology firms are providing health-related apps; travel managers are adapting travel policies and educating travelers about risks and precautions; thoughtful standards and guidelines are being set.

All good, important and very necessary work. In time, the virus will be defeated and people will be willing to travel again. But this will not be nearly enough.

The Larger, More Enduring Threat

The business travel industry now faces a much larger post-Covid threat. It is the ROI test: Will this trip be worth the cost and risk?

The risks of traveling are perceived as very high, and the acceptance of travel's substitute, the Zoom meeting, is incredibly broad. The Covid risks will come down, but the cost of a Zoom meeting will remain very cheap. This low-cost, well-accepted travel substitute makes it hard to justify any number of business trips.

Fail this ROI test too many times, and our industry dies.

Unfortunately, the return on travel's investment can't be calculated, not with clarity and consensus, and not at scale. Every potential trip's ROI is subjective. This is a problem not for the corporate travel manager, and not for the procurement buyer. We have to leave those subjective ROI assessments to the only stakeholder that matters—the travel budget owner, the person who controls this industry's lifeblood.

Many companies are struggling with the question of when and at what pace they should return to traveling. These firms recognize the need to balance traveler health and safety with the advantages of conducting business in person. Right now, Covid risks are dominating the travel budget owner's bandwidth.

Travel budget owners need good answers to these questions:

• Do we have a good handle on this trip's goals, costs and risks?
• Do our travelers and their hosts welcome this trip?
• Will meeting in person improve our chances of success?

It's that last question that we must now rally around. 

A Call to Action

Travel suppliers, especially the network airlines, need to showcase the many benefits of making connections in person. Not just a new connection made over a cup of coffee. The types of connections that generate significant value, connections that link ideas to innovation; presentations to sales; leadership to motivation; diversity to inclusion, training to new skills. Connections that are made with sparks that can come only from the conducive atmosphere of meeting safely together in person.

This is business travel's main competitive advantage over the virtual meeting. Clearly, the costs and risks associated with Covid-19 must be reduced. But our industry's size, health and future ultimately depend on growing this one value proposition, the advantage of meeting safely in person.

Marketing Is Key

Travel suppliers must now build a campaign around the benefits of meeting safely in person. This campaign needs to run in parallel with the one that is raising traveler confidence and reducing Covid anxiety. This campaign must continue well past Covid’s defeat.

What might this marketing campaign look like? For starters, it must be aimed at three key stakeholders:  1) the travel budget owners, those mid- and senior-level executives who make the decisions about which trips get taken; 2) the road warriors, for whom travel is essential to their success; and 3) the hosts, those who need to welcome travelers into their facilities.

Make the campaign aspirational and inspirational—paint a picture of the powerful insights and emotions achieved from meetings done in person. Make it about winning, teamwork and competitive advantage. Think Gatorade and Nike commercials, and riff from there.

The business travel industry is working hard to reduce the risks of traveling. We must now also showcase our singular competitive advantage—the power and benefits of creating valuable connections. Business travel can no longer be about travel. It must now be about business and the subjective yet very real ROI that comes from meetings done in person.