Is Business Travel Being Ruined By "Permanxiety"?
In the modern age, coining a brand-new word is a sure-fire way to attract attention.
Travel industry platform Skift has done just this, conjuring the term "permanxiety" in its new white paper. It follows hot on the heels of 'bleisure' – a word describing a trip that combines business and pleasure.
Arguably, permanxiety is a little less grating than bleisure – but is its creation merited in the first place?
Skift CEO Rafat Ali certainly believes so. He sees the modern-day citizen as under siege from all manner of worries: from terrorism to travel bans, climate change to income inequality. And many of these concerns, it's suggested, directly concern travel.
Additional business travel worries include smaller seat sizes, over-crowded airports – and the constant pressure from management to do more with less.
This permanent anxiety, suggests Ali, is fuelled by 24-hour news, ever-present social media and constant ‘connectedness' - through which new disasters and new threats, real or imagined – are disseminated to millions in the blink of an eye.
Business travellers, and travellers in general, are, Skift suggests, subject to an overload of information – creating an endless source of worry.
A raft of remedies have been created to becalm the furrowed brows of the jet-set: from yoga retreats to body monitoring apps.
And yet the stresses keep coming: from FOMO (fear of missing out), to worries that robots will take our jobs.
The anxiety that specifically surrounds travel is all the more ironic since it's an activity peddled as an effective way to reduce stress. But even if a getaway is relaxing, it is book-ended by potentially high-stress flights there and back – or so this paper suggests.
And for the business traveller, the anxiety can pile up even more if proposed business meetings are likely to be demanding.
But should travel be regarded as such a risky endeavour? As the paper's authors admit, you're more likely to enjoy a big lottery win than be involved in any kind of life-threatening event. In 2014 there was one fatal accident per 2.38 million flights. Flying is still one of the safest ways to get around, despite what round-the-clock news and social media tells us.
And as for stressful business meetings, may we suggest deep breaths and camomile tea?
Indeed, here at starttravel.co.uk, we're more about helping our clients avoid their stress triggers. Taking out compressive business travel cover is a great way to make a business trip as relaxing as possible.
Simply tick ‘Add Business Cover' to our travel insurance for a small extra fee.
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