Even during the Christmas holidays, hundreds of business travelers were underway daily. Was this due to commitment to their companies – or in order to “escape” the holidays?

It is apparently neither the desire to follow in the tracks of Santa Claus nor the inclination to view New Year’s Eve fireworks from high in the sky that kept many business travelers in action during the holiday season. The AirPlus Business Travel Index shows that nearly 5,000 AirPlus customers took care of business between December 24th and 31th in Germany alone last year. Although the number of business trips during this period is distinctly lower than on classical working days – when up to 30,000 German customers begin a business trip daily – the figures are still surprisingly high.

But the fact that hundreds of business trips are booked during the holidays does not necessarily indicate selflessness on the part of employees. After all, 40% of all employees in Germany try to avoid their company Christmas party¹  and only every third employee is really excited about Christmas Eve² . But it may well be that many a business trip is scheduled in order to combine the useful with the enjoyable.

¹ FORSA survey 2008, commissioned by Stern; © Statista.org 2009
² EMNID survey 2008 © Statista.org 2009