The impact of new business practices and information technologies on business air travel demand

This paper aims to measure the impact of new business practices and new communication technologies on the behavior of business travelers and their organizations. To attain this objective, the research methodology consists of 24 personal interviews, two focus groups with business travelers, and finally a survey of 1139 business travelers conducted at seven Canadian airports. Our results indicate that most of the changes to business travel practices were already put in place in the early 1990’s and that their impact has already been discounted. Business air travel will continue to grow. This is particularly true for trips taken to the US and other international destinations. The impact of videoconferencing as a substitute for business air travel is dependent upon both its penetration rate on the market and its utilization rate. Penetration rates expected in the literature and the results obtained in our survey clearly point towards continuous growth in the use of this technology. Furthermore, present users believe that communication technologies will be increasingly used as a substitute for business air travel in the future. This paper provides an evaluation of both the actual and potential substitution rates of videoconferencing for air travel. Finally, results indicate that this rate could be in the order of 3.6–8.6% in the year 2000.