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Are you a road warrior? – and why airports should care
Airports have to stop thinking about themselves as transit zones, and positioning themselves as active contributors to millions of road warriors’ jobs and eventual success. How about some healthy ammenities please!
More and more people travel annually, and with the still growing impact of globalization, as well as the emergence of an entrepreneurial culture, the number of cross- and international business trips has grown steadily in the last 15 years (In 2000, $634 billion was spent on global business travel, half of the $1.2 Trillion spent in 2015). Global business travel is forecast to reach 1.3 trillion in 2016 according to the GBTA BTI™ Outlook.
With this rise, there is a new breed of business traveler that you might want to know more about… the road warrior. If you see this expression for the first time, Mad Max might come to mind – and, even though, there might be certain similarities, it is far from that adventurous character.
By definition…well, no, there is no specific definition for road warriors. They are said to be people who travel often for certain reasons, but mostly professional. Imagining them as road-hardened people, covered in dust, could have been true several centuries ago, but today, as with everything else, this concept, too, has been remodeled. These days, road warriors spend a considerable amount of time waiting at airports. In a research by National Car Rental, the road warriors surveyed indicated that they favor facilities that they said enable them to be productive – like charging stations and easy access lounges – and also include a range of amenities to keep them entertained (healthy dining options and unique shopping experiences. One interesting request was an in-terminal shipping service so travelers could avoid having to take merchandise on board the plane.