In a recent survey by travel commerce firm Travelport, 55 percent of business travelers would agree to allow their employers to use GPS tracking solutions to monitor their movements and location while on business trips.
According to Travelport's U.S. Business Traveler & Travel Policy 2018 report, published in early August, business travelers appear willing to trade personal privacy not just for enhanced security but for other benefits too. For example, 70 percent of travelers are willing to offer personal data in return for better-targeted ads that are relevant to them when booking business travel online.
Other survey findings include:
- Convenience is the motivating factor when choosing an airline for business travel. Forty-eight percent of respondents prioritized factors like flight departure and arrival times, as well as direct flights, while only 12 percent cited company cost savings.
- While mostly compliant with policies, travelers want more freedom in how they choose and book flights, and manage that aspect of their expense reports. While almost 100 percent of respondents said they comply with their company’s travel policies, more than 80 percent said they would like to be allowed to book travel directly rather than through a corporate booking system, and be able to have automated expense reporting for those purchases.
- Convenience would also prompt travelers to spend their own money while on a business trip; a majority of respondents said that they would spend their own money for out-of-policy elements such as hotel-room and airline-seat upgrades, as well as faster hotel WiFi connectivity.
Complete survey results can be found here.
