Reports & Guides
Brian Tanis
June 5, 2025
The pandemic permanently changed how companies think about meetings. Five years on, most organizations have settled into hybrid patterns, but many still lack a clear framework for deciding when travel is justified. We developed a data-driven approach to help.
Based on analysis of thousands of corporate trips, we identified four key factors that predict whether an in-person meeting delivers significantly better outcomes than a virtual one: relationship stage, complexity of discussion, number of participants, and strategic importance.
In-person meetings consistently deliver better outcomes for: initial client meetings and relationship building, complex negotiations, team offsites and strategy sessions, and high-stakes presentations. These interactions benefit from non-verbal cues, informal conversation, and the shared experience of being in the same room.
Status updates, routine check-ins, training sessions with established curricula, and internal meetings with established team dynamics rarely justify travel costs. The data shows that well-run virtual meetings achieve comparable outcomes for these use cases.
ITS clients can configure purpose codes for trip requests that align with this framework. This creates data over time that helps travel managers understand whether travel budgets are being deployed effectively. Contact your account manager to set up purpose-based trip tracking.
Travel is an investment, not just an expense. Like any investment, it should be deployed strategically. The goal isn't to minimize travel — it's to maximize the return on every trip.
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