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The Frequent Traveler : Perils and Joys of Globe-Trotting
By Roger Collis International Herald Tribune

These are the findings of a survey, "Take Offs and Trade Offs: The Life of Today's Business Traveler," commissioned by Hyatt Hotels Corp. of 500 American executives, ranging from CEOs and presidents to managers and sales representatives. The average traveler was away more than 50 days a year while some logged close to 100 days a year on job-related travel.

There are several psychological types of traveler to choose from:

Globe-trotters (17 percent of the sample) are sociable and outgoing. They love life on the road which they regard as an antidote to humdrum routines, relishing a break from the office (96 percent) and from home and regular life (90 percent). Compared with other groups, they are more likely to say they feel adventurous (67 percent) and that business travel makes them feel successful (95 percent), excited (87 percent) and important (69 percent).

Globe-Trotters are more likely than other groups to be single (25 percent versus 13 percent of all respondents) and female (29 percent) and least likely to have young children. A majority hit the hotel bar or lounge (51 percent), where they try to strike up conversations with people of the same sex (51 percent) and the opposite sex (44 percent). They are the most flirtatious group: Thirty percent say they enjoy flirting with strangers and 30 percent say they tend to think about sex more when on the road.

Torn travelers (a quarter of the sample) enjoy business travel and believe it is important for their career, but 94 percent have qualms about being away from home (65 percent have children under eighteen) 53 percent say they are homesick when they are away and two-thirds travel with family photos. But they also secretly welcome the break (59 percent) and are more likely than average to say they feel successful (91 percent) and important (two-thirds) when they are away on business.

Torn Travelers indulge in guilty pleasures when away from their families: Fifty percent say they spend more on things they would not normally buy at home. Close to three-quarters go off their diets when traveling and 39 percent (higher than average) say they drink more than at home. Perhaps this is because their families don't make life any easier for them — 72 percent say that they have to cope with complaints from family about their absence and one in 10 worries that business has harmed their marriage. Three in 10 say they would give up traveling if their career permitted.

Smooth sailors (15 percent of the sample) are travel veterans. Business travel is a way of life, an intrinsic part of their jobs and it neither bothers nor excites them. They are less likely to feel that business travel affects their health or diet and they tend not to pamper themselves when they are away. Thirty-seven percent say business travel is not at all stressful, and they are least likely to miss family (23 percent) or to believe that travel has adversely affected their personal lives. They are the oldest (average age 51), most experienced group — 43 percent have been traveling on business for more than 20 years. The majority (87 percent) are married, but fewer than average (30 percent) have children under 18.

World Wearies worry about family and work when they are away. They describe themselves as tired (92 percent), lonely (81 percent), homesick (77 percent) and tense (73 percent). They also seem to be the most accident-prone — 71 percent have had baggage lost, 34 percent have had an in-flight emergency, and 18 percent have had to go to the hospital.

World Wearies are the group most likely to say that technology has made business travel more stressful. They are more loaded down with electronics than other travelers — 64 percent carry laptops, and 59 percent, mobile phones.

http://www.iht.com/articles/1997/08/15/freq.t_0.php fart