TRAVELLING abroad frequently for work is increasingly becoming common for executives even in tier-II cities such as Lucknow and Kanpur.
An increasing number of corporate having their regional offices in Lucknow are sending their executives abroad for signing business deals which was earlier an exclusive domain of the top management located at corporate headquarters in the four metros.
The deals signed by Indian executives with foreign collaborators either comprise technology transfer arrangements or bagging contract work related to manufacturing and software development carried out from bases within Uttar Pradesh. Another significant trend in the corporate travel segment is that earlier an entire team of executives numbering even nine at times rushed to a foreign destination to sign a deal which is not the case in an era of cost cutting where a maximum of two executives are chosen to travel abroad on work.
According to travel industry estimates, the average outbound business travel bookings from Lucknow is about 100 every month which is up from a mere 25 per month during 2004-05. About 7 million executives travelled from the country on business to various foreign locations during 2005-06.
“The corporate travel from Lucknow is mainly concentrated towards West Asia, Germany, United States and Europe during the past one year. The most travelled destinations for business from the entire UP region were found to be— New York, Amsterdam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Philadelphia, London and Hanovar”, Vivek Pandey, Regional Head (UP & Uttaranchal) of Delhi Express Travels Ltd told HT Lucknow Live.
{{/usCountry}}“The corporate travel from Lucknow is mainly concentrated towards West Asia, Germany, United States and Europe during the past one year. The most travelled destinations for business from the entire UP region were found to be— New York, Amsterdam, Dubai, Frankfurt, Philadelphia, London and Hanovar”, Vivek Pandey, Regional Head (UP & Uttaranchal) of Delhi Express Travels Ltd told HT Lucknow Live.
{{/usCountry}}The business travel bookings for outbound locations from Kanpur, on an average, is about 80 per month which is slightly less than Lucknow witnessing a significant corporate movement for both domestic and international destinations. Going by the trend of outbound travel bookings for corporate travellers both from Lucknow and Kanpur, the south-east business destinations such as Singapore and Bangkok do not figure in the list of most travelled destinations, he said.
The hotel and airline bookings for the business travellers are “non discounted fares” which are higher than the rates for outbound tourists. The average stay of executives abroad is between two to three days and have the flexibility of getting their stay extended at hotels with rescheduling of airline tickets again not possible with tourists, Pandey said.