Corporate America Has Fallen in Love Again With European Business Travel
Photo Credit: Hotel de Paris Monaco
Skift Take
American companies are now traveling to Europe in numbers approaching pre-4Q 2008 levels, but the focus is more on value, emerging destinations, and the next-generation business traveler.
Corporate travel planners in America remember September 2008 with dread. Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy, signaling the beginning of global financial collapse. Then the AIG scandal broke when the insurance company rang up a $443,000 tab at the St. Regis hotel in Dana Point just days after receiving an $85 billion bailout.
Many American companies killed their business and group travel budgets to upscale destinations to avoid the negative perception heaped on AIG. Europe especially took it squarely on the chin, as one of the most desired destinations for top-tier international business travel due to its cachet and cultural venues.
Fast forward to 2013. It’s taken almost five years but corporate America is heading back to Europe in a big way. Except it’s a different Europe and a different corporate America.
“It’s even more optimistic than that, it’s almost like America is running back to Europe,” says Chris Lynn, vp sales/marketing, North America at London & Part
