Why Do People Travel for Business

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Are you one of those who ask the question why do people travel for business? At this age of multitudes of ways to communicate we wonder why people still need to travel to different places in order to conduct business.

Learn that even in an age where we are capable of establishing contact with person miles away still does not diminish the need for long-distance travel for business.

There are a lot of reasons cited why people travel for business. The first reason given is building trust. While it is possible to meet with people via advanced technological means, but some argue that you can only build trust, a very important business aspect, if you have met your business colleague in person. Teamwork and collaboration are also missing when you do teleconferencing. While telecommuting does make a lot of sense, it also has a downfall. For example, an employee may be officially away at a meeting or a teleconference, but still, they are required to do the stuff they normally do at the office like answering phones, doing emails, etc., this results in divided attention and the employee learns nothing from the training and therefore is not able to impart the benefits of the teleconference plus they don’t get their regular job done. Juggling here would not work, and that is why companies still pay good money to send people to long-distance meetings.

Another reason why people travel for business is the need for social interaction. While it is possible to learn to spot non-verbal clues by reading books and watching videos, there is nothing that could replace the use of our own senses in spotting these clues and evaluating them then making informed decisions. This is very important when you are meeting a person for the first time. Some people do not feel comfortable teleconferencing with people they are not familiar with. It becomes rather awkward to be meeting a person for the first time through the screen. However, after the initial meeting, it might be possible to set up meetings via teleconference from time to time. Another plus when you go to meetings physically is that you don’t know who you are going to meet accidentally. It might be a key person to your business or someone who might become a future business partner. These possibilities are eliminated when you do teleconferencing instead of traveling.

A CNN report on a University of South Wales study said that business travel nowadays is also motivated by knowledge sharing and building relationships more than boosting sales. A very common type of sharing knowledge is by attending conferences and exhibitions.

Some personal reasons why people travel for business are the fact that it is work. Despite the included hassles of traveling, it is a blessing to have a job. Some even say that the simple lugging around of their suitcase provides them with a much-needed exercise. They get exposed to different cultures, sample different types of food, and most especially learn things that could be beneficial to business. This they cannot do when they are confined to doing teleconferencing all the time.

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Why Do People Travel for Business

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