Guest Author - Yvonne Russell

Who is the Business Traveler?
The broad community perception of a business person and business traveler is a smartly dressed woman or man carrying a briefcase. A well cut suit and a laptop completes the picture. To others, it often appears that the business traveler has a jet setting lifestyle, off to a meeting in Seattle or Tokyo, and usually traveling first class or business class.

Changing Face of Business
With changing times, a global marketplace, and the surge of internet based business, the face of the business world has changed. Someone working from home in Ireland can be employed by a Hong Kong based company, on a computer project, the stock market or writing.

Telecommuting
A check on one of the many job boards such as Craigslist shows jobs available from Bombay to New York. With a few keystrokes a telecommuting job can be outsourced anywhere in the world. Web design is a good example. If you don't know anyone local, you may have "met" some like minded people on a forum. A young web designer from Norway could design your web site on London.

Small Business Owners On the Move
The business traveler these days could just as likely be a travel writer on her way to a story, or a flower grower traveling to meet with a distributor. Similarly, the independent bookseller attending a conference or Book Expo, the artist conducting classes and the musician off to a gig, are all business travelers. Now that airfare prices are more competitive, small business owners are able to travel more, and take advantage of business and professional development and networking opportunities.

Working Within the Budget
These business travelers may not commute or travel on a daily basis, but they are nevertheless an important segment of those who combine business and travel. They are often working within tight budgets, and don't have expense accounts, so speed, efficiency and price are firm considerations.

Telecommuting
Telecommuting is set to become more widespread with advances in communication, podcasting, teleconferencing, screencasting, free wi-fi and collaborative web projects. Many businesses are structured in such a way that they can employ the cream of the crop, without the restriction of location. The suit stays in the closet, and can be replaced with jeans and a comfy top, until a face to face meeting is scheduled, and a plane ticket needs to be booked.

Implications for Airlines
While airports and airlines cater quite effectively to the traditional business traveler, it will be interesting to see if they respond to the needs of the emerging business traveler group of small business owners and telecommuters.