Skift Take

Viewing travel costs as an opportunity rather than a necessary evil can help businesses become stronger, in terms of both morale and revenue. Making this shift is hard, and it's unclear how many companies are ready to commit.

It might sound counterintuitive to companies dead set on reducing costs, but there are significant perks to expanding the company travel budget, especially for businesses that have offices set up all over the globe.

In fact, putting more money into travel might make employees happier, create stronger relationships with customers, and ultimately lead to higher profits. At least that’s what new research from the Harvard Business Review suggests.

This week we dig into the numbers behind these findings and look at the reasons why travel spend is so beneficial.

Plus we lay out the lingering fears of travel managers in the wake of the Boeing 737 Max 8 grounding.

If you have any feedback about the newsletter or news tips, feel free to reach out via email at [email protected] or tweet @izkrose.

— Isaac Carey, Travel Reporter

Featured Stories

Companies That Spend More on Travel See Big Boost to Business: Global companies with a high volume of travelers, take note. Tight travel budgets and overly strict travel policies don’t make for happy or productive employees.

Travel Managers Express Concerns About Boeing 737 Max Safety: Travel managers are concerned for the safety of travelers who will be flying Boeing 737 Max series aircraft in the future, and with good reason.

Choice Hotels Rebrand Campaign Aims to Win Back Business Travelers: Choice Hotels realized years ago that Comfort Inn’s look was outdated. The company has to hope that spending billions on renovations and new marketing materials will make the brand successful again.

Why Corporate Travelers Are So Reluctant to Use Company Booking Tools: It’s not enough for companies to offer online booking tools — they need to not only make sure employees know how to use them but also do a better job at keeping up with digital trends.

The Future of Travel

Emirates Is First Major Airline to Launch Basic Business Class Fare: Emirates has fired the first salvo in the unbundling of business class fares. Now you can buy just the seat, with none of the other trimmings that travelers are used to with top-tier carriers. It’s a pragmatic strategy, one that gives more choice to travelers. The tension will now be maintaining that great luxury brand halo and still letting the premium cabins do the marketing hard yards for the carrier.

Skift Tech Forum: Marriott Sees Google as Effective Add-On to Direct Channels: Attribute-based reservations may go nowhere or they could transform the way people shop for hotel rooms in coming years. Marriott’s Stephanie Linnartz believes consumers like the increased control they get when booking rooms with specific features.

Private Equity Takes Control of Cendyn in a Bet on Hotel Tech: Many hoteliers will be watching what Cendyn’s new president, Tim Sullivan, does to grow his company’s software suite, which offers tools for automated marketing, business intelligence, and group sales management. Can it fend off competitors?

Skift Senior Enterprise Editor Andrew Sheivachman [[email protected]] curates the Skift Corporate Travel Innovation Report. Skift emails the newsletter every Thursday.

Subscribe to Skift’s Free Corporate Travel Innovation Report

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Tags: corporate travel, ctir

Photo credit: A traveler exits with her suitcase at Sacramento International Airport. Robert Couse-Baker / Flickr

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