I recently saw an article in the Harvard Business Review (not my usual reading, but we have some smart people here at ACI-NA who do read it) about the value of face-to-face meetings (full story or executive summary) in the conduct of business. It brought to mind an earlier post decrying the fact that some governments and businesses are not only cutting back travel but also putting certain communities on some sort of banned list.
Anyone who has traveled for business knows two things: face to face contact cannot be duplicated over the phone or on a computer; and, the glamour of business travel is way overstated.
The fact is that travel for business is hard work; there is time away from home and family and a need to play catch up when you return. But because this is not easy to explain, business travel gets a bad rap.
I will add more than 100,000 miles to my frequent flier accounts this year, almost all of it for business. I think about what was accomplished on those trips, and it was worth every mile and every penny.
I live in the Washington area and because I am traveling so much for business this year and because we did have a family trip to Hawaii to celebrate our sons’ graduations, I decided to stay relatively close to home this August when I took some time off. But I didn’t stay AT home, and found a lot of great things to do — things you should consider doing if you travel here.
President Lincoln's Cottage at the Old Soldier's Home in Washington.
I already wrote about visiting family at the Jersey Shore and visiting the grave site of Grover Cleveland (also sort of a family trip, he is a distant relation of my wife and sons). I went to the Newseum here in Washington, we spent hours there and I highly recommend it. Lincoln’s Cottage at the Old Soldier’s Home is an undiscovered gem here in Washington; this is where Lincoln spent a quarter of his presidency and wrote the Emancipation Proclamation. Speaking of Lincoln, I also visited the newly renovated Fords Theater and Lincoln Museum. This has always been a favorite of mine, and it is better than ever now.
I also managed to attend three Washington Nationals games.
We took a trip up I-95 and visited Nemours Mansion and Gardens in Wilmington, Del. Well worth the trip. We then went to Lancaster, Pa., (a little more than 2 hours north of Washington) and visited James Buchanan’s grave site and his home, Wheatland. You can learn about it on Lancasterhistory.org. Buchanan was probably our worst president, it is hard to argue otherwise (Franklin Pierce might give him a run for his money, and we had these guys back to back – thank God we had Lincoln come next!). But his home is one of the best such sites I have ever visited, well worth it. His grave proved difficult to find and visit, but I did get there and have now visited 20 of the 38 presidential grave sites.
I don’t know if we will have been able to change some peoples’ minds about the value of travel, whether for business, pleasure or educational benefit. But it is up to us in the travel industry to try.
