Travel stress is a common side effect of business trips. Learn ways to maintain your mental health in our guide to coping with anxiety.
While travelling for work brings excitement and opportunity, business trip anxiety can dampen these benefits. Shifting time zones, upset routines and the burden of expectation take their toll on frequent business travellers, potentially causing feelings of stress, anxiety, and even burnout.
It’s important for HR teams to consider this impact and plan accordingly, with strategies to support employees throughout their travels. With adequate planning strategies and mindfulness techniques, it’s possible to stay calm and happy during business travel, all while achieving company goals.
In this guide, we’ll provide some helpful methods to offset the physical and mental toll of business travel, so that the positive health impacts outweigh any stressors.
Travel on its own can be stressful for many. It may involve flight cancellations, lost luggage, and tight connecting times. Even when everything runs according to plan, travellers may experience jet lag and disorientation from being in an unfamiliar place.
With business travel, an added layer of workplace stress is added on top of this baseline. When a flight’s delayed, this could mean missing an important meeting. When you’re tired from travelling, you may not be performing at peak productivity. Frequent business travel can cause fatigue, lack of work-life balance, and longer-term burnout.
According to a World Travel Protection survey, 32% of business travellers felt exhausted during after their trips, while 30% felt stressed and 29% felt homesick. Anxiety was also highly reported at 28% of those surveyed, making it clear that travelling for work can directly impact mental health.
At times, the stress of business travel transitions into fully formed, medical travel anxiety and even panic attacks, called hodophobia. It’s believed that hodophobia stems from past negative experience during travel. Hodophobia can also be caused by negative events in the news, such as pandemics or terrorist attacks. By identifying the root cause, this type of travel anxiety can be overcome with treatment.
For many workers, business trip anxiety is caused by a fear of the unknown. If you’re feeling nervous about an upcoming work trip, some of the best mental health strategies involve pre-departure preparation.
A company’s travel policy serves as a framework for all aspects of business travel. It explains everything travellers need to know about travel booking and approvals, along with safety measures, expenses, payments, and useful contacts.
When drafting a corporate travel policy, planners should take employee wellbeing and inclusion into account, weighing the impact of travel on mental health. For example, when selecting company-approved brands and properties, look for ones offering wellness facilities, fitness centres and healthy dining options. You can also empower travellers with a flexible policy that gives them some control over their own bookings.
For travellers, referring to this document before and during your travels ensures you’ll know who to contact in your organisation when you need assistance. Simply knowing your company’s there to support you with a duty of care can often reduce business travel stress.
Your company’s travel policy will explain the booking process in full. Many companies prefer to use a central business travel management system to keep itineraries organised. For example, Booking.com for Business allows team members to book and manage their trips, share itineraries, and manage any changes through a central dashboard.
Travel coordinators and HR teams can give travellers input in their own itineraries to reduce anxieties over upcoming travellers. If you’re a manager, consider leading tutorials in how to best use the company’s booking systems.
With a sense of control over the upcoming business trip, travellers may feel better prepared and less anxious. That way, they’ll be able to reserve approved business flights and hotels that fit with their own preferences, for a more comfortable travel experience.
Apart from the usual stresses of travel, unexpected challenges may arise throughout the course of a business trip. Whether it’s an issue with your travel visa or a cancelled flight, changes to plans are a major source of business travel anxiety.
Companies should provide a contact for 24/7 emergency support, helping travellers feel at ease should they encounter any issues. Before departure, write down contact details for your travel manager.
A comprehensive travel itinerary will include details including:
Review this as soon as you receive it, then refer to it before and during your journey to feel more prepared. Knowing exactly what’s expected of you at every stage will minimise stress and ensure you get to your destination on time.
Travel apps are packed with useful information, whether it’s locating the nearest business class lounge, translating a foreign menu when entertaining clients, or converting currency with real-time market figures. Before you depart, make sure you have essential business travel apps like the following:
Passport control and international customs are another common source of travel anxiety. With business travel, this should be managed on your behalf by your company’s travel coordinator. However, it’s still helpful to keep all your essential documents in one folder for easy retrieval.
Travel coordinators should also have a backup copy stored in the cloud for added employee security.
Essential documents for business travel may include things like:
Keeping everything in one place minimises uncertainty and airport stress before you travel.
As you’re getting everything ready for your journey, pack your carry-on luggage the night before. Include a change of clothing, toiletry essentials, work-related devices and any country-specific adapters. That way, even if your luggage is lost, you’ll be able to cope upon arrival.
For travellers, advance preparation is one of the best ways to manage business travel stress. You know what to pack, who to contact for help, and what your trip entails. However, many people still experience anxiety when travelling away from your home and office.
Here’s how to deal with anxiety while you’re travelling.
For some, it’s a fear of flying. For others, it’s a fear of not knowing the language. At times, anxiety triggers while travelling are physical, such as dehydration, long periods of sitting, or a lack of healthy meal options. Identifying your usual triggers from past business trips will help you address them more adequately.
There are many things you cannot control on a business trip. What you can control are your own expectations and reactions. Looking at your itinerary, is there enough leeway should something go wrong? When travelling to deliver an important sales pitch, for example, make sure you’ll still arrive in time if you miss the first flight or train.
Travelling to a new place for work is exciting, and after spending the day in meetings you may be keen to explore with colleagues. However, overcommitment can lead to burnout and stress. Build some time into your itinerary to relax and follow a schedule that keeps you feeling balanced.
If you start to feel the symptoms of stress or anxiety, such as an increased heart rate, irritability, or even rising panic, pause and take a breath. Breathing exercises are a frequent recommendation for general anxiety, and they work equally well for business travel anxiety.
According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, breathing exercises and mindfulness alleviate stress and anxiety, while helping you think more clearly. This is because our brains associate breathing patterns with specific emotions. When you’re feeling fearful or stressed, breathing becomes shallow and irregular. A calm, happy mindset results in regular, steady breathing.
With deep breathing techniques, you can trick your brain into feeling that sense of calm again, reducing cortisol levels and resulting stress. A simple technique to try is to inhale for four counts, then exhale for eight counts. Team this with mindfulness methods for best results. For example, clear your mind and focus on nothing but the feeling of air passing in and out of your nose, noting each sensation. This fast, effective technique can calm you even amid airport chaos.
Bring calming pillow sprays, favourite playlists and noise-cancelling headphones to relax on your journey. If your work itinerary includes a layover, make the most of it by finding one of the airport’s business class lounges or clubs. These include plush, comfortable seating, complimentary food and drink, and even wellness facilities to help you relax during your journey.
If you’re prone to travel anxiety, it’s often better to travel with a colleague or group rather than alone. Talking to your fellow travellers provides a useful distraction from airport stress, while also providing a sense of security in numbers. You’ll have someone there to help if something goes wrong. On shorter journeys, you can use your transit time to get ahead with work or brainstorm.
While there’s a link between business travel and mental health, it also takes a toll on your physical health. Use some of your unscheduled downtime to stick to your usual fitness routine. Take a morning walk or run before starting your daily work session and use your business hotel’s fitness facilities. Regular exercise not only helps you fight jetlag and sleep better, but it also boosts your endorphins and reduces cortisol. This all leads to better resilience in the workplace.
Travelling for work often involves networking with clients and indulging in local delicacies, all of which can impact energy levels and mood. When you’re not entertaining colleagues, look for fresh, healthy options and drink plenty of water to stay hydrated.
Take control of travel and mental health with today’s digital self-care tools, designed for use anywhere in the world.
Business travellers can benefit from apps including:
Download these before you leave, and you’ll have a self-care toolkit in your pocket.
A major cause of business trip anxiety is worrying about the workload you’ll face when you return. To alleviate this stress, check in with your team back at the office to keep track of any changes. Build some time into your daily routine to respond to emails and take notes so that you’re ready to share results and accomplishments from your travels.
Even when travelling with colleagues, business trips can feel lonely at times if you’re missing friends and family back home. Bring a few mementos from home, such as photos or desk items, to create a sense of familiarity. Create a better work-life balance on the road through connection with loved ones when time permits, whether it’s a Facetime call or quick WhatsApp message. Connecting with your home support system improves mental wellbeing.
Around a third of adults experience some form of anxiety while flying. If you’re a nervous flyer that needs to travel for business, your company may pay for a fear of flying course. These professionally designed courses, available in-person and online, explain the science behind flying while providing helpful tips for coping with flight anxiety.
For example, British Airways’ Flying with Confidence module explains how pilots are selected and trained, takes the mystery out of turbulence, and offers controlled breathing techniques to reduce travel stress.
For a serious phobia of flying, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective solution for many business travellers. Once on the plane, you can use your deep breathing techniques to calm your nervous system, while distracting yourself with in-flight entertainment.
Some business travellers cope with travel anxiety with medication that has a sedative effect to help you remain calm during travel. You’ll need to speak to your doctor for advice on managing symptoms with medication.
While there are plentiful self-help tips for nervous business travellers, stress management also begins with a strategic organisational safety net.
Integrating aspects of employee health and wellbeing into the corporate travel policy, including setting clear expectations and giving travellers some control over their own itineraries, can reduce many of the anxieties associated with business travel.
The good news is that for most business travellers, anxiety decreases with exposure. In other words, the more business trips you take, the less fearful you’ll be about them. In the meantime, there’s a wealth of assistance out there for corporate travellers, from airport stress relief apps to deep breathing exercises.
From the admin side, a well-written travel policy and convenient SME travel management platform can help stop travel anxiety before it starts by eliminating fear-causing unknowns. Using Booking.com for Business, employees will be able to book and manage their own flights, accommodation, and car rental from a centralised system. And with free 24/7 travel support as well as an integrated traveller map, they’ll feel supported and secure on the road.
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