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Research conducted by Australian owned data and insights business Pureprofile, which surveyed 800 NZ residents who have travelled for business in the past 12 months, shows most corporates either plan on increasing the frequency of business travel, or keeping it the same for the remainder of 2024, despite less-than-ideal economic conditions.
For most large corporations, the start of July also means the start of a new financial year, and as many will be sitting down and analyzing budgets for FY25, it seems travel will not be scrapped from many spreadsheets.
Recent research commissioned by large corporate and government travel management
company, FCM shows 60 per cent of those that have travelled for business within the past year expect the frequency of their corporate travel to stay the same this year, while 30 per cent expect to travel more for business.
FCM New Zealand general manager Kelly Thomas says it seems to be widely acknowledged
that travel is not something many businesses can do without.
“If anything, travel drives business growth,” Kelly says.
“Face-to-face meetings with potential customers, stakeholders or investors are crucial for profit
“Likewise, investing in your people to bring them together for events, team building, and
conferences can result in long-term productivity gains.”
While travel remains crucial, Thomas acknowledges cost saving will still be top of mind while the economy remains stagnant.
“While we recently moved out of a technical recession, many economists have reported the
country is still not completely out of the woods with the economy not expected to move in a more positive direction until 2025.
“Cutting costs where possible will be important, and that’s something a travel management team can help businesses with, without compromising on the frequency of travel.”
The research showed cost saving was one of the main reasons businesses partnered with a
travel management company (41 per cent), only behind peace of mind and timesaving.
Kelly says there are some key ways in which travel managers can optimise travel budgets.
“We have access to exclusive industry rates and utilise a range of tools including our own worldclass reporting system to find ways to stretch your budget further.”
She says as companies sit down and look at ways to make improvements to the bottom line for this financial year, travel shouldn’t be overlooked.
“There are two key ways in which a travel management company can help you improve
profitability – by keeping travel costs at a minimum, while still allowing you to travel frequently to boost those all-important business connections.
“By mobilising Kiwi businesses, I believe we will help create a thriving economy and more
optimistic outlook.”
