Business travellers prefer WiFi over lounges and priority boarding, finds Egencia

Business travellers prefer WiFi over lounges and priority boarding, finds Egencia

Wi-Fi and and cross-device integration are preferred by business travellers over priority boarding and airport lounge access, according to Egencia research. The business travel arm of the Expedia group released its fourth Business Travel and Technology Survey this week, which showed business … Continue reading

Wi-Fi and and cross-device integration are preferred by business travellers over priority boarding and airport lounge access, according to Egencia research.

The business travel arm of the Expedia group released its fourth Business Travel and Technology Survey this week, which showed business travellers favour being able to be productive.

Two-thirds (66 percent) of business travellers across the world want to manage and book their business travel on every mobile device, not just on their smartphone, with 64 percent of UK business travellers making the ask. And 51 percent of British respondents to the survey would avoid human interaction on the road unless they are having a problem and half of British respondents want access to business travel tools to do more on mobile in general, according to the research.

“We are at a turning point in business travel where standalone products are just not enough. Expectations of global business travellers are higher than ever before: they want instant access to information and management tools on every device, while operating autonomously,” said Rob Greyber, president of Egencia. “At Egencia, we also realise that satisfaction and productivity are not mutually exclusive for travel managers and business travellers, which is what drives us to continuously deliver integrated cross-device experiences to our customers around the world.”

According to the survey, business travellers are optimistic when it comes to technology’s role in improving their business travel experience. In the UK, 50 percent would like to use text to update their travel arrangements and 41 percent believe advancements in artificial intelligence will help improve their travel experiences.

Egencia also found that 70 percent of business travellers find trips more enjoyable than everyday work life, but the results of the survey back up the firm’s white paper “Control: Find out what it means to your travellers” which previously found that there are still incremental changes that can be made to increase overall satisfaction on the road – which starts with productivity enhancements.

Blurring the lines between business and pleasure, non-stop flights and in-flight Wi-Fi ranked high among business travellers as perks that would increase both their productivity and satisfaction. Rounding out the top four amenities business travellers cited to improve productivity and satisfaction are extra time off to compensate for traveling on weekends and/or personal time and class upgrades on flights longer than six hours.