Making travel arrangements for employees can be costly—but it can also be necessary.

If you work within a small or medium-sized enterprise (SME), and particularly in an SME or industry that may serve a limited international clientele, then you may hesitate before making travel arrangements for employees. With the cost of travel rising and overall travel spend increasing, too, it can sometimes feel a little unnecessary. Considering how much of what business travel used to entail—meetings, conferences, etc.—can now all be conducted online, over Zoom, and how do you know when’s the right time to make business travel arrangements for employees? When is your “why” good enough?

According to the Global Business Travel Association, a recent GBTA poll found that almost half (48%) of travel buyers expect their companies to take more business trips in 2025, and nearly 20% more (57%) anticipate increased travel spending this year. Travel buyers expect that more than a fourth of the travel spend will be allocated to sales and account management trips, while a smaller percentage of travel spend will be dedicated to other types of business travel, including internal meetings, conferences and trade shows, and service trips.

Before making travel arrangements for employees, consider these things to determine whether you should join the trend.

1. Is Travel Crucial for the Job?

First things first, is travel necessary in general for the job? If so, you have an easy answer. However, it’s not enough to merely ask yourself this question. Consider asking those who are actually doing the job, to what degree does travel impact their performance? Their answer might just surprise you. According to a Business Travel News survey (BTN) conducted last year, more than 83% of surveyed business travelers said that travel was either “important” or “very important” to their job success. 

2. Will Travel Increase Job Satisfaction?

If your industry, like so many industries, is seeing labor shortages and is having to vie with competitors to secure new talent, as well as retain existing talent, then it’s worth considering whether or not a business trip will increase job satisfaction. While not every member of a team may care about or even like business travel, many do. In fact, in the aforementioned BTN survey, a similar 84% of survey respondents said that business travel was either “important” or “very important” to their job satisfaction.

3. Does the Trip Align with Company Goals?

If your company goals would benefit from business travel, then, by all means, consider that trip potentially worth it. For example, say your company wants to provide education and greater training to a certain group of team members. It makes sense to send those team members to a conference or similar event where they can gain that education and training. Likewise, maybe the organization’s greatest goal at the moment is growth. Then, trips that support that—such as important sales trips, client meetings or trips to oversee production—may be necessary.

However, if travel doesn’t directly align with a company goal, it might not be necessary. It’s simply not the overall best use of budgetary resources. For instance, say your greatest company goal at the moment is to increase sustainability. If so, you might not choose to add to your carbon footprint by taking more business trips than absolutely critical.

4. Does the Trip Come with Certain Risks?

A company’s Duty of Care plays a role in every single business trip, no matter how close to home or far away it takes a business Traveler. Some trips, though, do come with elevated risks. Think about whether or not these risks are worth it for your Travelers, as well as for the company. If those risks are realized, what happens? What’s the cost, again, both for your Travelers and for the company? Additionally, make sure Travelers know about and are comfortable with the risk. If they’re not, or if you find that the risk might not be worth it, it’s a sign to skip business travel in this instance. 

5. What Kind of ROI Will You See from a Trip?

Every business trip comes with an ROI, even those that aren’t directly related to sales or client relationships. A trip for employee development could increase employee satisfaction. This ensures the employee stays on staff. The company avoids the cost necessary to replace them. 

Really consider the ROI of each trip. Explore whether or not you’ll actually see a positive return on the initial investment.

How to Get the Greatest Value from Each Business Trip

If you’ve decided that making travel arrangements for employees in the near future is a necessity, try to get the greatest value, that highest ROI, from each and every trip.

This can be accomplished in a few ways. For example, you can work with a Travel Management Company (TMC) to streamline the travel booking process. A TMC can also ensure you’re getting the best deals on travel. It will also cut down on internal booking needs, saving team members’ precious time. 

You may also want to leverage a single trip to get the most benefits possible, such as by scheduling client and sales meetings at the same time that you’re traveling for a conference or event.

 You can also ensure business Travelers are getting the most satisfaction out of each trip. You can do so by giving them a certain amount of freedom to choose how they travel, as well as the opportunity to book their own travel within the confines of your travel policy, through an online booking tool or self-booking tool like Teal, powered by JTB Business Travel and Spotnana. 

What is Teal? 

Teal is JTB Business Travel’s new, next-generation travel-booking platform powered by Spotnana. It provides Travelers with an autonomous, easy-to-use, mobile-friendly booking experience, so they can book, modify or cancel air, hotel, rail and car bookings as needed—while still enjoying seamless support. 

Learn more and see how Teal can enhance and simplify your SME’s business travel.