Définition générale des voyages d'affaires (document en anglais)

General definition of Business travel

Generally, business travel is defined as “work‐related travel to an irregular place of work” This definition illustrates the major function of business travel and regular trips of businessmen within their local surrounding, thus stressing a spatial aspect.

Business travel has been growing at a high speed for the last 30 years. Thus, between 1982 and 2007 the total amount of business travelers in the UK which are involved in outward business trips has increased by 277% having reached 9,018 million.Despite the recent economic downturn there still can be witnessed a continuous proliferation of business journeys provided by the requirements of the market.

All types of business travel deserve thorough consideration since this segment of travelers has higher spending per person to compare with leisure tourism.

There exist various classifications of business travel which emphasize different attributes.

all business travel into two main types:

• individual business travel and business tourism:

The group of Individual business travel comprises all sorts of trips undertaken by

business travelers for presentations, consultations, investigations, as well as one‐to‐one meetings. In this case business travel can be a regular feature of their employment

Business tourism foresees such forms as Meetings, Exhibitions, Incentive trips and Corporate hospitality. Meetings include a very wide range of activities, from conferences and trainings to general meeting of companies, while the subgroup of Exhibitions deals with trade shows and fairs. Incentive travel depicts those trips which are undertaken as a reward from employers for good performance. figure1

business travel encompasses all travel activities undertaken with the purpose of inter‐firm and intra‐firm communication, as well as meeting with external stakeholders, such as governmental bodies and non‐governmental organizations or conducted with the learning purpose.

With regard to business travel prerequisites Aguilera, 2008 identifies several main reasons which can explain a growing need for business travel among which there can be named a wide development of multi‐unit companies which require internal communication, possess higher demand for project team cooperation and internalization of the relationship between client and market. However, face‐to‐face contacting in business relationship explains just one side of the business travel phenomenon. Another necessity of the market today is a growing need for learning and constant development which is satisfied by means of attending conferences, congresses and courses.

of the long‐haul international business trips are conducted with the purpose of attending a conference or a congress (Aguilera, 2008). Regularly, under the condition of multiple time and budget constraints, the closer the distance of a business trip, the higher the chance to travel.

Interconnections between Business travel and Leisure tourism

Business travel has its distinct characteristics and motivations which make it different from tourism in its classic meaning.

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