Are you in the business travel industry and concerned about how long it might take corporate travel to return to normal after the pandemic? Don’t worry – it’s already back on track and is expected to be fully recovered by 2024. People will with no doubt continue to meet in person for business meetings, and here’s why.
According to the travel management company, TripActions, business travel bookings for the first three months of 2022 surpassed more than half of all bookings for 2021, with an 875% increase from March 2021 to March 2022.
More people are booking ‘bleisure’ stays. Bleisure is a blend of the words ‘business’ and ‘leisure’ – meaning that vacation days are spent right after the business trip to the destination.
And here at Situ Serviced Apartments, we’ve seen a remarkable change. We’ve had a rapid growth in bookings for serviced accommodation in 2022 in line with the expansion of our company and many new locations around the globe.
Business travel – a choice or a requirement?
Business travel used to be a necessity before Covid-19 for many companies, whether that was for meetings, relationship building, or collaboration between partners and suppliers. The pandemic changed our way of doing business and familiarised us all with meeting up online. But it’s now clear that despite our proficiency in the virtual world, meeting up occasionally in real life is key to building closer relationships with stakeholders.
And although people may not be required to travel in today’s world, that doesn’t necessarily mean that they don’t want to meet up face-to-face for meetings, big projects, or events in order to build better connections.
Let’s think about why it’s crucial to meet clients, suppliers, and partners in person. Here are 5 top reasons why you should meet face-to-face.
1. The important of Face-to-face communication
Meeting your clients, suppliers, and partners demonstrates that you value their time and business. You will feel more connected than you might over Teams meetings, email, or phone.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to have virtual meetings as well! It saves a lot of time if you have a busy work schedule. It’s just about finding a good balance that works well for both parties to build a strong relationship.
2. Meeting in person is important for a loyal and trusted relationship
Face-to-face meetings with clients and customers will increase the emotional relationship between you and helps to build loyalty. We are human – we naturally want to interact with people with whom we are doing business. Especially at the beginning of a client or supplier relationship where trust hasn’t been built yet.
3. Meeting up with your clients, suppliers, and partners will result in a more focused and productive meeting
It’s easier to stay focused and engage with people when you’re in a room with them, where you can talk without distraction from emails on your computer, for example.
It’s also easier to brainstorm ideas face-to-face with a big whiteboard and a notebook than doing this virtually on Teams.
4. Technology is less likely to be a problem during in-house meetings
Meeting in person means we don’t need to worry so much about a less-than-perfect internet connection, camera problems, or wasting time on getting the microphone on the headset to work properly. These issues are so annoying!
5. It’s clearer to communicate when you meet in person for business meetings
Another reason why face-to-face meetings are still so important is that it’s much easier to communicate goals and objectives. In person, it’s easier to read body language and facial expressions which say so much about what a person thinks and feels about an idea.
Now that you’ve read the benefits of why it’s important to hold business meetings in person, be sure to browse our serviced apartments for the best combination of comfort and convenience when you travel for business.