Companies are spending more money on business travel but their employees are gaining little of the benefit as they continue to cut the costs of each trip, Scheherazade Daneshkhu writes. Euromonitor, the London-based market research group, says that costs are being reduced through shorter trips. Business travellers are also holding back from spending a night in their destination to save on hotel bills.

The main reason for the increase in corporate business travel spending is because of the rise in flight costs, according to Euromonitor. Some companies are continuing to cut the number of trips their employees take as well as trading down the class of air travel. Carlson Wagonlit, the business travel agent, says that 35% of UK companies questioned for its survey in January said that they had changed their policy to allow for a lower class of travel.

The number of companies willing to pay for long-haul business-class travel has been in general decline over the past three years, according to Carlson Wagonlit. There has been a corresponding rise in economy fares. Most of those it questioned said they were prepared to travel on less expensive no-frills flights on short-haul routes, but wanted greater comfort on longer flights.

The latter wish appears not to be granted. The number of those flying in business or first class on long-haul flights dropped compared to last year, while economy-class travel has increased. But there is some room for optimism. More than two-thirds of the travellers questioned said they expected to make more business trips over the next 12 months - a 36% increase from last year. Source: Daneshkhu17 (reprinted with permission)

Question
1. How might marketing research help the travel business to unravel some of its problems that are as yet unresolved?