Thursday, July 24, 1997

For survival over the miles, which describes your style?

By TOM BELDEN / Knight-Ridder Newspapers

If you're a frequent business traveler, would you describe yourself as a globe-trotter, a smooth sailor, world-weary or a torn traveler?

Those are the categories that Hyatt Hotels Corp. has devised to classify travelers in a comprehensive and thought-provoking study it commissioned of the loves, hates, trials and tribulations of people who must spend big chunks of their lives away from home on business.

What the categories mean is that some people who travel extensively are seldom stressed out by it, many who have done it for years would love to quit, and many of those who must leave children at home tend to feel guilty about the time they spend away.

As a group, the 500 travelers surveyed, three-quarters of them men, take an average of 17 business trips a year, so it should be no surprise that they experience a disproportionate share of the annoyances and outrages of travel.

Among the myriad things that the travelers said can go wrong, and often did go wrong, on a trip:

-- Of those who have been traveling 20 or more years, 42 percent have been on an airline flight that has had an in-flight emergency; of all those surveyed, 27 percent have had that scary experience.

-- Seventy-seven percent of the travelers have had a flight canceled; 64 percent have had an airline lose their luggage; and 46 percent have been snowed in.

-- On the really-bad-news front, 8 percent of the travelers have been robbed while on the road; 3 percent have had a war break out in the country they were visiting; 16 percent have gotten a traffic ticket; and 1 percent have been arrested.

The survey, conducted for Hyatt by the Roper Starch Worldwide research firm, includes some lighter nuggets, too, such as the finding that 5 percent of the very frequent travelers (those taking 25-plus trips a year) said they met their future spouses while traveling. Twelve percent of the respondents admitted that they had used a business trip to search for another job. And 3 percent said they had been laid off from their job while on the road.

But for the most part, this was serious market research, conducted by Hyatt in part so that it can devise ways to make its hotels more homelike and appealing to people who may not always want to be there.

Thomas F. O'Toole, Hyatt's vice president for marketing, said it was important for the company to know about all the positive and negative feelings of business travelers so that the hotels can help make travel "a more productive, enjoyable and hassle-free experience."

Considering the problems that can crop up, the survey delved into just why so many executives are willing to spend so many days away from home. The reasons cited make complete sense:

-- Almost all of those sampled - 94 percent - said they usually finish a business trip with a sense of accomplishment, and almost as many (85 percent) said they feel successful when they take to the road.

-- Three-quarters of the travelers said they enjoy the travel experience because they get to see new places.

-- Two-thirds said they like traveling because it's a break from the routines of the office.

Of the four types of travelers that the study identified - globe-trotters, the torn travelers, the world-wearies and the smooth sailors - the ones who find travel the most difficult and stressful are in the second group.

These people are younger than average, and two-thirds have children at home. Most of them secretly enjoy the break that travel gives them from home, and many feel an ego rush when they get to travel on business. But the majority of them find it difficult to be away from home, worry about not being around to protect their family, worry about missing milestones like birthdays and anniversaries, and admit feeling homesick.

What it all adds up to is that the older you are, with an older spouse and children, the more likely you are to be a stress-free traveler.

"The greatest determinant of a person's feelings about business travel is the person's family status," said Mark Walker, a psychiatrist and Hyatt consultant who is affiliated with Northwestern University's medical school. While every traveler may face a load of work upon returning to the office, "family status determines whether they return to a stressed-out spouse with young children, or an employed, older spouse, happy for a brief break," Walker said.