Industry Begs Businesspeople to Travel

Nov. 2, 2009— -- The age of high-flying executives filling those first-class seats is long over. Or is it?

Airlines, hotels and others in the travel are trying to convince businesses that it's OK to travel once again. In a series of new ad campaigns and slogans, they are trying to pitch the importance of meeting customers in person and trying to erase some of the negative stigmas attached to once-extravagant travel.

Business travelers are often the most profitable customers for airlines, hotels and car rental companies. They book at the last second, often make several changes to their travel plans and are often more concerned about time and convenience than price.

But the recession changed all that. Companies scaled back -- or even eliminated -- travel budgets. Those business people who were still traveling generally downgraded from 5-star hotels to 3-star hotels and flew coach with everybody else.

Now the travel industry is fighting back.

"We got vilified. We got vilified for being who were we. The media jumped all over anybody who was walking through the doors of a luxury hotel to have a meeting," said Bruce Himelstein, senior vice president for sales and marketing at Ritz Carlton.

Himelstein said it got "way out of hand" with companies taking heat whether they took government bailout money or not. In the public's eyes it didn't matter if they were a Wall Street firm or a successful farming company.

"If you were walking through the hotels of a luxury hotel, you were a bad person," Himelstein said.

So now the luxury hotel company is pushing a new message about staying at its properties and, more importantly, holding corporate events and retreats there. In advertisements in the Wall Street Journal and in communications with clients the message has been: "It's not extravagant if it produces results."