Travelport claims to have identified a new trend among UK business travellers whom the GDS owner says are making “flying visits” to long-haul destinations such as China.
Research commissioned by Travelport suggests more than one million corporate travellers made a 20-hour or more round trip to “far flung destinations” in the last 12 months and spent less than 12 hours in the country they visited.
The survey of just over 1,000 business travellers identified the US, Hong Kong and China as the top long-haul business destinations from the UK and found half the travellers to these destinations spent 12 hours or less on the ground.
In fact, the findings suggest as many as 135,000 UK corporate travellers who visited Australia in the past 12 months may have spent less than 12 hours in the country.
Among those flying such long distances, 28% did so to attend a meeting and 16% to sign a business deal.
More than 270,000 UK business travellers may have made a 20-hour trip “just to hire someone”, according to the research.
The figures are based on UK Office for National Statistics figures on the number of business trips in a year.
Travelport concludes: “Business travellers frequently spend longer in the air than on the ground when travelling for business.”
It suggests: “The research reveals a new trend of flying visits, showing the significance business people now place on face-to-face meetings.”
Travelport UK and Ireland regional director Simon Ferguson said: “We can see UK business people are prepared to fly a long way when the stakes are high. This trend persisted even during the economic downturn.”
Ferguson added: “There was a slight decline in overseas business travel in 2012-13 [but] our research showed 48% of UK business travellers now expect the amount they travel over the coming year to increase.”
The research was carried out by Opinium Research among 1,006 UK business travellers who fly at least twice a year between February 27 and March 5.