The cost of travelling is rising continuously, which is especially annoying for business travellers, who often have to travel in order to do their job. The three most important elements of travelling expenses are: hotel costs, car rental costs and the cost of flights. Fuel prices underlie most of the increased costs, but demand for these services is up too.
Even though traveling is getting more expensive, there are greater numbers of business people traveling round the world and this trend is expected to continue in future. This is the result of the globalized society we live in. As Mike Streit of Advisory Services for American Express Business Travel says "One of the wonderful things happening in our globalized economy is that opportunities to connect with people are expanding." Many companies are multinational these days and many of them routinely deal with dozens of countries around the world. This inevitably leads to higher travel-related costs.
According to Business Travel News Magazine, there are some 300,000 companies in the US that have "significant business travel expenses." Although the travel industry in general tries hard to satisfy all its new clients, sometimes there are problems keeping up with demand. As David Meyer, editor-in-chief of Business Travel News claims, "The business traveller is seeing fuller planes, more delays, more of their baggage being mishandled… And they are having more trouble finding hotel rooms." This situation has led to an "Airline Passengers" Bill of Rights" - where airlines have to give out more information, including details, for example, of forthcoming delays and cancellations.
