The key to employee retention? Business travel …

New research from Booking.com for Business, the global leader in connecting business travellers with the widest choice of places to stay, reveals how people’s professions shape their outlooks towards business and leisure travel, and the increasing intersection of the two.

Almost a third of all working professionals accepted their job fully or in part because of the business travel opportunities it offered, highlighting the lure of business travel for employees. When looking into specific professions, this sentiment is echoed by 45% of Architects and Designers, as well as 38% of Management Consultants.

On top of that, over a third say they would actively pursue a new job if it meant they could travel even more for business. This figure rises to 46% among 18-34 year olds, as well as Architects and Designers and Management Consultants. The statistics suggest that employers looking to attract and retain the best talent should consider travel as an intrinsic part of the job package they offer.

For those who extend business trips for leisure time, the majority do so by 24 hours (41%), followed by 2-3 days (29%) and a few hours (24%). In terms of how people spend this off-the-clock time, the results paint an interesting picture of today’s modern travelling professional. More conventional activities such as exploring well-known attractions (57%), trying local cuisine or dining at top restaurants (42%) and shopping (40%) emerged as the top three activities overall.

When looking across all professions, 70% of employees say making time for leisure travel gives them greater job satisfaction. What’s more, for 75% of workers, leisure travel helps them to better manage work stress and pressure, but what is the attraction to business travel in a digital world? According to specialists, it all boils down to trust, knowledge, efficiency and cost.

“It can take a long time to find the right flight online (ensuring the rules of the ticket meet your needs i.e. flexible, non-flexible, fee’s charged for amendments or cancellations), then you need to find the right hotel near the business being conducted and the transfers from airport to hotel, or even the rail tickets,” said Paul King, Director of Sales at business travel company Blue Cube. “This can potentially take several hours out of a busy day and PAs do not have the time to spend hours booking a business trip for their boss.

“It is much more time efficient/cost effective to trust someone who is an expert to source all the products you need for a business trip and to provide you with 3 options within a specific time frame.”