BUSINESS trips are an inevitable feature of careers with an international dimension. Today, they are also often a family affair, whether the business element is grafted on to the end of a short trip or the family is in tow from the outset during an extended stint abroad.
Harry Woods is a self-employed IT specialist whose work frequently involves visits to Europe. Wherever feasible, he arranges for Debbie, his wife, and their two sons to visit for a weekend during or at the end of a trip.
“I work long hours at home and, rather than endure absences on top, this way we all benefit. We spend quality time together, and my wife, who mainly looks after the children, gets to enjoy breaks, which last year included Brussels and Warsaw.”
Ted Wake, sales director of Kirker Travel, which specialises in city breaks, says that more people are asking him to add in a family break when handling business travel for clients.
“The driving force is the vast number of business people who are self-employed or working as independent consultants. They often work from home and are used to incorporating family-oriented elements in their work.
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“They also understand that their time is a precious resource that needs to be split carefully. We might arrange for the business partner to travel on Eurostar from Waterloo, have a driver meet them at Gare du Nord, a central hotel arranged. The rest of the family will travel at a later stage, perhaps going direct to a EuroDisney hotel. We will arrange a private car or pre-paid train journey to take the business partner out of the city, if that’s the plan. Then, after the weekend, the family returns to the UK or the business partner continues their stay.”
Wake admits that it can be complex. “But clients are, understandably, happy to hand over the task of fitting the pieces of the jigsaw together. The key is to co-ordinate the arrangements seamlessly.”
Longer-haul travellers, too, can call on a wide range of family-friendly support. Several airlines offer services for travellers with children, from priority boarding to baby buggies delivered to the arrival gates.
Gulf Air offers a full-on sky nanny service which, says the airline, is especially popular with business travellers. Demand is such that more than 100 sky nannies now operate on Gulf Air’s long-haul services London-Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi-Sydney. The Norland College-trained sky nannies assist during boarding and disembarkation and during the flight; they arrange dining, entertain and generally watch those in their care. Parents are free to eat, work or rest uninterrupted — as are other passengers who, according to research conducted by the airline, find children “more annoying than drunks”.
The choice of family- focused accommodation is also widening.
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In the United States, the business traveller with family is “transforming the travel industry”, according to the Travel Industry Association of America. Hotel groups such as the Sheraton offer special family deals at most locations, including Washington’s business district. Most also offer babysitting services through hotel staff or a bonded service.
Beyond the hotel sector, serviced apartments are geared to family groups, and Guus Bakker, executive director of Fraser Serviced Residences, says they have seen a noticeable growth in demand for more family-friendly facilities for the business traveller over the past three years.
Fraser, whose residences include Paris’s La Défense business district, as well as Seoul, Singapore, Bahrain and Dubai, will set up children’s bedrooms (with twin beds or bunk beds if children wish to share), provide cheery children’s bedding, and cots, high chairs and baby gates for younger visitors.
“Families with children want to be able to bathe them so apartments have bath tubs,” says Bakker.
Additional services include children’s television channel packages and DVDs, separate laundry facilities, plus babysitting services.