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JOHANNESBURG – At first, out‑of‑town work trips might have felt like a promotion: you represented the company, were sent to “make things happen”, flew Premium Economy, stayed in a fashionable hotel, networked and hopefully, secured new business.
But after some time, red‑eyes, quick turnarounds and other travel pressure started wearing thin. So, you start checking out mentally, wondering why this could not have been a Teams call. And why every “quick” trip requires intense preparation, domestic juggling, and days of unscheduled recovery time.
It all feels like it’s not on company time, it’s all on you.
That’s because much of it is. Business travel has a tax, and your staff are paying the heaviest price.
The fatigue isn’t imaginary
Tourism management expert, Professor Anneli Douglas from the University of Pretoria, has described business travel as a double‑edged sword, linking travel stress to “presenteeism” – being physically present but mentally absent. Citing an earlier Stats SA estimate that presenteeism costs the economy R89 billion a year, Douglas’s own research among 400 business travellers found that about 2.3 days are lost to presenteeism each month due to business‑travel stress, draining capacity, output and judgement.
A recent burnout report from Mental Health UK shows 79% of professionals report significant burnout symptoms, with frequent travellers at high risk of stress‑related absence. And research linked to the International SOS Foundation shows business trips contribute to marked behavioural changes, with 45% of travellers reporting increased anxiety and emotional exhaustion.
This doesn’t only happen on the road. Douglas says the stress peaks before the trip, when travellers are managing their home life, work cover and admin, which then follows them on their travels. This pressure is often worse for travellers from the Global South, who are also up against distance, long-haul flights, safety concerns and travel disruption. Once they return, they encounter back-to-back meetings, time spent “catching up at night”, until it develops into burnout.
It’s not just the formal workload either. Studies on the division of labour and the domestic mental load show that coordinating childcare, school runs and household security from a different time zone can be particularly draining for parents. Add in general day-to-day expectations (keeping your normal inbox and outputs going while on the road) and you effectively have travellers doing two jobs at once.
Business travel fatigue isn’t a personal gripe, it is a management issue, affecting how people think, decide and represent the business away from home.
Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa, says organisations are now changing tack:
“They are much more deliberate about building resilience now. Where possible, clients are avoiding red-eyes and back-to-back meetings, adding in time to reset because they’ve seen what exhausted travel does to performance, outcomes, and especially to people.”
When a reset day becomes company policy
Combining business travel with downtime used to mean “make it a weekend, if you can”. In practice, most travellers can’t, because they have a life outside work and limited leave.
The new approach is different. It treats recovery as part of the itinerary. Deloitte’s 2025 Corporate Travel Study notes a sharp turn from pure cost‑control towards “traveller experience” to improve performance and retention, with multinationals like Citigroup experimenting with structured “reset” periods and company‑wide breaks to combat always‑on culture.
Practically, that can mean:
- Mandatory landing buffers for long‑haul flights – for example, a 24‑hour reset before the first face‑to‑face engagement.
- A shift towards wellness-oriented accommodation and lifestyle hotels that support sleep, recovery and “digital detox” zones, instead of treating the hotel purely as a bed near the venue.
- Family‑support measures such as cleaning or meal‑delivery vouchers to ease the domestic load during heavy travel cycles.
There is a duty‑of‑care dimension as well. Industry bodies like the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) say wellbeing belongs inside duty of care and risk management because mental and physical health affect safety, behaviour and work performance on the road. If risk management only covers disruptions and physical security, it misses equally important risks associated with fatigue and stress – impaired judgement, reduced concentration and the knock‑on effects on productivity.
For Mafojane, a reset day, when done properly, is about designing travel so people can do the work they travelled to do – and ensuring their company gets full value from every trip.
How to build this in, without inflating costs
Her answer, then, is being more selective about designing travel. Reset time is not required for every domestic business trip, but it should be reserved for longer trips that are likely to have an impact on performance – those requiring overnight flights, multi-city schedules, and trips that require critical engagement immediately upon arrival. In such cases, a buffer is often cheaper than the risk of diminished output and strained client outcomes.
Connectivity is part of the problem. Laptops, Wi‑Fi and mobile tools mean work doesn’t pause when someone is in transit; it follows them through airports, taxis and hotel rooms, putting travellers under more pressure.
The Flight Centre Travel Group says nearly half of corporate customers expect to increase travel budgets in the coming year, raising the stakes for getting real value from each trip.
“It’s not difficult to accommodate a traveller’s needs,” says Mafojane. “You can widen property selection, update profiles with preferred travel times, and allow for a bit of wiggle room in the schedule. Ultimately, companies that recognise this shift are protecting judgement, relationships and retention.”
**ends**
For more information about FCM Travel call Sonnette Fourie on 081 072 2869 or email sonnette@bigambitions.co.za.
About FCM Travel:
FCM Travel, the flagship corporate travel brand at Flight Centre Travel Group (FCTG), is the business travel partner of choice for large national, multinational and global corporations. We are an award-winning global corporate travel management company ranking as one of the top five by size around the world. We operate a global network which spans more than 100 countries, employing over 6000 people.
FCM are transforming the business of travel through our empowered and accountable people who deliver 24/7 service and are available either online or offline. Leveraging FCM’s negotiating strength and supplier relationships in conjunction with our tailored business travel programs, our expertise delivers more for our clients where it matters most to them.
Visit us at www.fcmtravel.co.za
Issued by: Big Ambitions
Contact: Lori Cohen
Tel: +27 79 641 4965
Email: Lori@bigambitions.co.za
