Business travelers tend to connect their business trips with vacation. This fact was revealed in a survey that was initiated by Egencia and conducted by a market research company, Strategy One. The company surveyed 2,400 respondents across France, Germany, the UK, the US and Canada between May and July 2008.

According to Jean-Pierre Remy, President of Egencia, today’s corporate travelers are very busy people who are trying to balance their personal and professional needs. Majority of business travelers likes business trips and 85 per cent of them claim traveling is the reason why they like their job. There are, however, differences in opinions of individual business people. The researchers have identified six different groups of business travelers.

The first and largest group is the group of “experience-hungry” travelers. Thirty nine per cent of respondents belong to this category. They schedule as much free time as they can and they use it to explore new destinations. These travelers enjoy taking pictures and shopping while on a business trip. The group of “experience-hungry” travelers was most numerous among French respondents (44 per cent).

Twenty three per cent of the surveyed are the “hyper-connected” travelers. Business people in this group like to develop business networks and they do not necessarily enjoy traveling for work. These people stay focused on business matters and they usually carry BlackBerry and a WiFi-ready laptop to stay in touch. Top managers are more likely to fall into this group than employees.

“Cost-conscious” travelers are the third largest group. Fourteen per cent of respondents fall in this group. Cost-conscious travelers usually work for smaller companies and value for money is the key priority in every business trip. Most “Cost-conscious” travelers were among UK corporate travelers (17 per cent).

Three smaller types of travelers were identified in the remaining 24 per cent of the surveyed. There was the group of “home-focused” travelers which was made up by people with young children and by travelers aged between 36 and 45. Home-focused travelers enjoy traveling the least from all the surveyed. For “seasoned” travelers (6 per cent) traveling is a routine as they make around 25 business trips a year. The smallest group was the “green” travelers (1 per cent) who travel by plane only if there is no other option and they invest in reduction of CO2 emissions to offset their travel. This group is growing.