Amex GBT Report: Faster-Growing SMEs Traveling More Than ‘Followers’

Higher charges of enterprise development at small and midsized firms corresponded with larger charges of enterprise journey—and never essentially customer-facing journey, in accordance with a report printed on Monday by American Express Global Business Travel and U.Ok. market analysis agency Ipsos.

For the report, Ipsos surveyed 800 U.S. and U.Ok. enterprise leaders at SMEs, outlined within the report as companies with 10 to 250 workers within the U.Ok. and 20 to 500 workers within the United States. Those firms that had no less than 5 p.c year-over-year development in income or turnover in 2024 and projected the identical for this 12 months had been recognized as “growth leaders.” In the U.S., that represented 41 p.c of respondents, and within the U.Ok., 36 p.c of respondents had been development leaders.

Among these development leaders, 66 p.c stated that they had despatched workers on a world enterprise journey throughout the previous 12 months, previous to the survey’s interview window of Jan. 22 by 27. Among the “follower” firms with decrease development charges, solely 52 p.c stated that they had despatched workers on worldwide enterprise journeys throughout the previous 12 months.

However, the faster-growing firms had decrease charges of journey for consumer undertaking work and consumer relationship-building than their slower-growing counterparts, in accordance with the report. About half of the follower respondents listed these as causes for enterprise journey prior to now 12 months, in contrast with 42 p.c of development chief respondents.

The development chief firms outpaced the follower firms in all different sorts of enterprise journey. Conferences, commerce exhibits and exhibitions had been probably the most incessantly cited causes for enterprise journey in each teams, with 58 p.c of development chief and 51 p.c of follower respondents itemizing it as a cause for enterprise journey over the previous 12 months. The greatest unfold for the 2 teams was in journey for coaching, studying and improvement, with 55 p.c of development leaders itemizing it as a cause for enterprise journey in contrast with 45 p.c of followers.

Other causes for journey through which development chief firms outpaced follower firms included management conferences and shows, gross sales conferences, on-site visits and each on-site and off-site crew conferences.

“[Growth leader firms] are ahead of followers when it comes to opportunities for staff development and engagement, such as training and team meetings,” in accordance with the report. “This suggests travel performs a different function: not just a way to service clients, but as a wider generator of company culture by bringing the workforce together.”

The report recognized a number of different areas through which development chief firms differed from follower firms, together with a better charge of introducing new services and products, a better charge of exporting and a better charge of searching for exterior specialist recommendation, significantly within the subjects of AI and automation, journey administration, information safety, commerce and market insights.