Business travel trends for healthy flying are in the hands of millennials
Website design By BotEap.comAccording to the 2013 American Express Global Business Traveler Survey, if you’re a business traveler and sit next to me on your next flight, there’s a one percent chance you’ll strike up a conversation with me—both for businesses that become social! Whether you want to strike up a conversation with me is another matter, but this article isn’t about me, it’s about the developing trends in business travel from the perspective of a healthy traveler.
Website design By BotEap.comThe survey was conducted by American Express in the summer of 2013 with participants from the US, UK and Australia. Approximately 500 randomly selected business travelers were surveyed in each country.
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Website design By BotEap.com(1) As the global workforce undergoes changes, Millennials are beginning to represent a larger portion of it.
Website design By BotEap.com(2) As a group, Millennials value a better work-life balance and know it while on the road.
Website design By BotEap.com(3) There is an additional focus on relieving travel-related stress.
Website design By BotEap.comFocusing on the US market, the issue of travel stress is specifically in evidence.
Website design By BotEap.com74% of travelers said they drank extra water to stay hydrated.
Website design By BotEap.com48% stretched on the plane.
Website design By BotEap.com44% use a hotel gym.
Website design By BotEap.com20% avoid alcohol.
Website design By BotEap.comMost use a combination of diet and exercise to stay healthy while traveling and 41% supplement their diet with vitamins.
Website design By BotEap.comIf only implicit, these numbers show that more business travelers are beginning to recognize and value the correlation between flying healthy to getting there well, being productive, and succeeding in business.
Website design By BotEap.comThis can only mean good news for the healthy flight niche. If the influence of millennials as a demographic bloc wields as baby boomers have done during recent boom cycles, the healthy flying niche and other industries will be better for it. This period of time is the most important because we have the makings of a perfect storm. We have an influential demographic that flies and values health. We have questionable or non-existent health care provisions, which means that staying healthy and out of the health care system is a priority. We have an epidemic of autoimmune diseases and we have globalization and technology playing the role of holy sinner and savoring all at the same time. There are more people taking to the skies than ever before, travel is more stressful than ever before, and the frequent flyer has to negotiate all of this while still performing at their best.
Website design By BotEap.comGlobalization is forcing the pace of change we are experiencing. The good thing about this is that more nations are coming online, so to speak, the bad is that it becomes an even busier market to trade. The same is true of technology: it forces change, but it also brings an always-on, visible aspect to our lives. How we can harness these two forces to enable a better flight experience for health-conscious frequent fliers is a million-dollar question in more ways than one.
Website design By BotEap.comSome steps are already being taken in this direction, I hope the efforts continue in this direction with some really useful kit being made available to travelers. At the moment we have some notable players. The Napwell sleep mask, Re-Timer sleep glasses, and Valkee LED headphones are a few that are strictly for jet lag or sleep problems that often accompany jet lag. On the other hand, there are technologies that have a native use that can be adopted by travelers to alleviate some symptoms of jet lag. Brainwave Apps and Barefoot Earthing Technology products are some of these second-rate technologies. The photon shower revealed in a TED talk in 2013 sounded promising, but it’s just a concept with no firm production plans. The explosion of fitness devices that work with the latest smartphones or stand alone is a curve you can expect travel-related gadgets to follow. In fact, there are already some of these devices on the market. The AirPlus Traveler Productivity white paper on how to manage traveler productivity used such a product.
Website design By BotEap.comAs I mentioned earlier, the most potent indictment of the times we live in lies in the strong currents of change caused by Globalization and Technology. I would say that globalization is increasing global collaborative work where people travel and come together on a short-term project. This trend is already prevalent in the world of entertainment, journalism and fashion and even in the technology industry. As it continues to develop, the need for people to arrive fit and ready to do business becomes more obvious. Even without going that far, multinationals that spend large sums of money to recruit the best they can find want them to maintain their performance advantage when sent halfway around the world on company business. It is well known that it is no longer enough to reserve a seat in business class and hope that the employee arrives safely.
Website design By BotEap.comAs players in the travel industry and the corporate world become more aware of the costs of travel-related stress and jet lag, quantifying it in terms of outcomes becomes a useful yardstick. The aforementioned AirPlus Traveler Productivity white paper and the Carlson Wagonlit Solutions Stress Triggers for Business Travelers White Paper (which includes the Travel Stress Index tool) are two attempts to put perspective on the scale of the problem. How the data is used in these two tools is a question for individual travelers from corporations, as well as airlines and travel industry intermediaries. For the airlines, at least, it seems the battle lines are drawn, with the launch of the latest Boeing and Airbus offerings infiltrating the shares of most major players, the focus is shifting away from hardware (the planes). to software (customer service and deliverable product enhancements), the latter category could include any number of health initiatives to ensure frequent business travelers arrive safely.
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Website design By BotEap.com“American Express survey finds most global business travelers balance work and play while on the road” – The Plane Facts (Infographic)
Website design By BotEap.comAirPlus. Traveler Productivity: Adapting Your Travel Policy to Improve Traveler Performance (White Paper) PDF File.
Website design By BotEap.comCarlson Wagonlit Solutions – Stress Triggers for Business Travelers: Traveler Survey Analysis (White Paper) PDF File.