There is still a lot of caution with corporate travel, even though some are seeing signs that the recession is letting up. What is likely happening is an overflow of the emotional aspects of the bailouts and subsequent regulations surrounding meetings with those companies. It would behoove everyone to remember that it is largely emotional, and logic says that canceling travel is not a good idea.
For those who disagree and think corporate travel is wasteful, let’s see if you can answer this question truthfully: would you run your company on emotion or logic? If you said logic, good for you. So the next question for you is do you want your employees to know they are valued when they are productive? Or do you want them to think that all the productive employees before them were appreciated and they are not?
If your client has always provided corporate travel, especially for incentives, and he cancels the program, he may lose more than he bargained for. If you have a client who cancelled attendance at meetings, she may be telling her people that their education really isn’t important after all, and they may wonder why it was before.
Of course there are other concerns to canceling travel, but the most important ones regard people who deserve the trip. It all depends on the message your client wants to send, and the doubt that he or she wants to cast among the workers.
