Business Travel Curbs May Be Permanent

Kiplinger reports:

Reductions in both the number of business trips and the amounts spent on those trips during the recession are likely to be permanent. No one’s talking about going back to the way things were, even after the economy recovers. For example, trips for intracompany meetings have been greatly reduced, replaced with video- and teleconferencing. This change is likely to extend beyond the current downturn. “Businesspeople will still travel, but will travel smarter,” says DeAnne Dale of Travelocity Business.

Are all those hotels, in many large cities, going to be necessary?