For regular people, cost of travel and the time it calls for to be taken away from work can be two main hindrances to considering travel for themselves, what with competition and inflation setting in as well for them; however, with baby boomers – born into privileged, wealthy families that showered them with everything they needed and the greater freedom they enjoyed in exercising choices, there’s no such obstacles.

This is because baby boomers are products of the population explosion after the Second World War (the period between 1946 and 1958, to be precise) when America and other parts of Europe witnessed a surge in childbirth rates, following the economical prosperity and stability enjoyed by the surviving families who could pass these on to their children.

Thus, baby boomers are actually the target audience of many exclusive and up-market tour operators who wait and plan their packages and schemes around the interests and needs of the baby boomers approaching retirement, who can jolly well afford to do so as they have already come from wealthy families; added to that they have held high income jobs, been high achievers and do not need to worry about these or looking after families that are well taken care of, so are free to travel.

They also have an independent streak in them that does not permit them to take the ways of the older generation when they faced retirement i.e. sulking at home or worrying over approaching old age since they have already considered how to fight aging (through exercise and fitness routines besides taking advantage of medical science treatments for collagen, knee and hip replacements etc.) so can concentrate on availing the benefits of a great travel deal they can easily afford.

The attention they enjoyed as kids has continued for the baby boomers through their adulthood and even till their retirement age as recently travel companies hoping to entice them with luxury travel options have further travel agencies luring this deep-pocketed lot with an exclusive website catering only to baby boomer travel needs, interests, amenities and customized travel plans requested. Just an email dropped in for enquiry will start the process of online booking of travel deals, checking and comparing options on other sites and many will do this till late at night since they are comfortable handling technology and gadgets that allow them to view, review, compare, scan and print essential documents -even tickets and guides off the Internet.

Thus, the true nature of baby boomers at retirement age is to opt for a relaxing and illuminating vacation at luxury resorts or hotels rather than the general touristy choice of a wayside hotel that is overcrowded; they feel they can splurge their hard earned dollars and they deserve to do so on themselves and a certain degree of comfort and frills. With the US home to 29% baby boomers, the travel industry there can look forward to hundreds of booking provided they learn about specific interests, comfort levels, can pamper customers that are accustomed to being treated well and give them variety, fun and luxury travel plans.

According to the American Express Global Business Traveller Survey 2013 if you are a business traveller and you sat next to me on your next flight there is a one percent chance that you would engage me in conversation, so much for business going social! Whether you would want to engage me in conversation is another matter but this article is not about me it’s about the developing trends in business travel from a healthy flier perspective.

The survey was conducted by American Express in the summer of 2013 with participants from the US, UK and Australia. Approximately 500 randomly sampled business travellers were surveyed in each country.

The standout headlines are

(1) As the global workforce goes through change the Millennials are beginning to make up a larger portion of it.

(2) As a group the Millennials value a better work life balance and are savvy about it while on the road.

(3) There is an added focus on relieving travel related stress.

Narrowing in on the US market the travel stress theme is specifically in evidence.

74% of travellers said they drank extra water to stay hydrated.

48% stretched on the plane.

44% use a hotel gym.

20% avoid alcohol.

The majority use a combination of diet and exercise to stay healthy while on the road and 41% supplement their diets with vitamins.

Even if it is only implied these figures show that more business travellers are beginning to recognise and value the correlation between flying healthily to arrive well, be productive and successful in business.

This can only mean good news for the healthy flying niche. If the influence of the Millennials as a demographic block is brought to bear the way the baby boomers have done for the last few economic boom cycles the healthy flying niche and other industries will be better for it. This period in time is all the more important because we have the makings of a perfect storm. We have an influential demographic that fliers and values health. We have challenged or non existing healthcare provisions which mean staying healthy and out of the healthcare system is at a premium. We have an epidemic of Autoimmune disease and we have Globalisation and Technology which play the roles of saint sinner and saviour all at the same time. There are more people taking to the sky that before, journeys are more stressful than before and the frequent flier has to negotiate all of this while still performing at the top of their game.

Globalisation is forcing the pace of change we are experiencing. The good about it is more nations are coming online as it were, the bad is it becomes an even more crowded marketplace to negotiate. The same applies with Technology it forces change but also brings an always on and in view aspect to our lives. How we are able to harness both of these forces to enable a better flying experience for health inclined frequent fliers is a million dollar question in more ways than one.

Some strides in this direction are already being made, I would expect efforts to continue in this direction with some seriously useful kit to be available to fliers. At the moment we have a few notable players. The Napwell sleep mask, the Re-Timer sleep glasses and Valkee LED earbuds are a few aimed strictly at jet lag or sleep trouble often accompanying jet lag. On the other hand there are technologies that have a native use which can be adopted by fliers for relief of some jet lag symptoms. Brainwave Apps and Barefoot Earthing Technology products are some of these second category technologies. The Photon shower revealed at a TED talk in 2013 sounded promising but is only a concept with no firm plans for production. The explosion of fitness gadget that work with the latest smartphones or stand-alone is a curve you can expect travel related gadgets to follow. There are actually some such gadgets already in the marketplace. The AirPlus Traveller Productivity White Paper on how to manage traveller productivity used such a product.

As I mentioned earlier the most potent indictment of the times we live in is to be found in the strong currents of change caused by Globalisation and Technology. I would argue that Globalisation is increasing global collaborative work where people travel and come together on a project for the short-term. This trend is already prevalent in show business, journalism and the fashion world and even in the technology industry. As it continues to develop the need for people to arrive on form and ready for business becomes more obvious. Even without going that far the multinationals who spend large sums of money to recruit the best they can find want them to maintain their performance edge when they are sent half way around the world on the company’s business. It is common knowledge that it is no longer enough to just book a business class seat and expect the employee to arrive well.

As the travel industry players and the corporate world become more cognizant of the costs of travel related stress and jet lag, quantifying it in terms of the bottom line becomes a useful yardstick. The aforementioned AirPlus Traveller Productivity White Paper and the Carlson Wagonlit Solutions Stress Triggers for Business Travelers White Paper (which includes the Travel Stress Index tool) are two attempts to put a perspective on the scale of the problem. How the data in both of these tools is put to use is a question for the corporations individual fliers as well as the airlines and the travel industry intermediaries. For airlines at least it seems the battle lines are drawn, with the rollout of the latest offerings from Boeing and Airbus creeping into the stocks of most major players the focus is moving away from the hardware (the planes) to the software (customer service and deliverable product enhancements) this last category could potentially include any number of health initiatives to make sure business frequent fliers arrive well.

Cited Works

“American Express Survey Finds Majority of Global Business Travelers Balancing Work and Play While on the Road” – The Plane Facts (Infographic)

AirPlus. Traveller Productivity: How to tailor your travel policy to improve traveller performance (White Paper) PDF File.

Carlson Wagonlit Solutions – Stress Triggers for Business Travelers: Traveler Survey Analysis (White Paper) PDF File.