Canadians may be polite and generally law-abiding, but if a recent study is any indication, our business travellers don’t mind playing a little fast and loose with the rules.
As Bert Archer reported in the Globe and Mail, an unexpected picture of the Canadian business traveller was revealed recently at the National Business Travellers Association conference in Toronto by Ipsos Reid vice president David Pierzchala.
In an informal survey, 45% of American business travellers say they obey their employers’ travel policies while just 19% of Canadians surveyed said they comply with company rules about how to fly and where to stay. A third of Americans says they are satisfied with their companies' rules regarding travel, while only 9% of Canadians said the same.
There are some caveats to the survey, however. More than half of Canadians said they didn’t have any travel policy, compared to just a third of American respondents. Pierzchala says his findings indicated that American travellers were better informed about travel policies, why they exist and how they save the company money.
But Nikki Germany, the Canadian president of Egencia, Expedia’s business travel arm, told the Globe there may be something else at work: frugal Canadians often break the rules to save money rather than spend more. “Canadians are generally more fiscally conscious than our American counterparts,” she said, “prizing free parking or a discounted hotel rate over loyalty programs and premium bedding. I think it’s a cultural thing.”
