Corporate Travel Destinations

Who says corporate travel is all about jets, hotels, and airports? The world is a place where many modes of transportation and even different meeting venue styles vie for corporate business. Here are some lesser known corporate travel alternatives:

• Trains – Trains are an older form of transportation, but modern bullet trains are amazingly swift. These trains can be found throughout Europe, Asia, and are even becoming a popular alternative in the United States.
• Boats – Boats come in many shapes and sizes, but many boats are designed to at least appear to be culturally and/or historically significant. Traveling up a river in a modern-day steamboat is safe, quiet, and even offers corporate travelers a way to relax while getting a little business done en route.
• Ships – Some boats are big enough to be called ships. While the distinction between the two can be a little blurry at times, most corporate travel on ships tends to take place on cruise ships. Cruise events and cruise meetings are also understandably popular.

No matter which style of alternative corporate travel is selected, remember that the choice can be used to portray the company in a certain light to employees, the public, partners, suppliers, and virtually anyone else. How people in a company travel and work says a lot about that company, and where that company holds its meetings and events can be equally important.

Cruises are unique corporate destinations for a number of reasons, but one of the least considered reasons would be the fact that the trip really is the destination. Consider how much time busy businesspeople waste every year traveling all around the world in order to get to Conference A or Seminar B. Now take that time and multiply it by an executive salary, add in hotel and travel fees from multiple companies and the number quickly balloons in the billions or trillions of dollars.

Consider the difference that cruise meetings have ot offer to the bottom line:

• The amount of time that expensive business people spend on cruises tends to be more productive than time spent on aircraft and/or airports.
• Most cruises feature multiple ports of call, which makes flights shorter and less airline/airplane transfers likely.
• Businesspeople also get to recharge their mental and social batteries while on cruises, and that alone is difficult to put a price tag on. It certainly beats allowing high-powered individuals to take time off and spend time on the golf course.
• The fact that the method of travel is actually a destination in and of itself means that more work and more relaxation can be enjoyed.
• By getting more services from a single vendor, in this case the cruise line, it is possible to save lots of money.