Are Business Trips Still Necessary in the Age of Zoom?

In the past, business trips were simply necessary. There was only so much a phone call could achieve, and if a company wanted to expand into a new market or close a deal with an overseas partner, sending a high-level employee in person was often the only realistic option. Today, video conferencing has made it possible to run a global business without ever booking a flight. So the question worth asking is: are business trips still worth the time, cost and English-language stress they involve, or has Zoom quietly made them optional?

The case against business trips

Some companies have gone “all the way” with video communication and stopped sending employees to other countries for meetings altogether. Their argument is straightforward: a flight, hotel and days away from the office cost far more than a well-run video call, and that money and time could be spent elsewhere. For routine check-ins, status updates and internal meetings between offices, this argument is hard to disagree with. There’s genuinely no reason to fly someone across a continent for a meeting that a 45-minute video call could handle just as well.

The case for business trips

But business trips don’t just move information from one place to another, they build trust, and trust is harder to build over a screen. If your business partner is in a different country, a high-level in-person visit lets both sides gauge, in a way a video call can’t, whether the venture is actually likely to succeed. Reading body language across a table, sharing an informal meal, noticing how a potential partner treats their own staff, these are the details that influence major decisions and simply don’t transmit well through a laptop camera. There are also nuances in a negotiation, hesitation, tone, the pause before an answer, that are far easier to read and respond to in person, and if the moment to close a deal appears, being physically present to seize it can matter more than any cost saving.

Video calls versus business trips

The English skills each format actually demands

It’s worth noticing that video calls and business trips demand slightly different English skills. A video call rewards clarity and concision: short sentences, explicit signposting (“Let’s move to the next point,” “To summarise…”), because unclear audio and lag punish rambling far more than an in-person conversation does. A business trip, on the other hand, rewards small talk, informal register and cultural fluency, the ability to comfortably discuss the flight over, the weather, or local recommendations before the meeting even starts, since that small talk is often where trust actually gets built.

A perk, not just a cost

It’s also worth remembering that a business trip can be a genuine perk for the employee: a chance to see a new city, meet colleagues face to face and step outside the daily routine. Companies that treat every trip purely as an expense to be minimised sometimes miss this side of the equation entirely, especially when it comes to retaining talented employees who value the experience.

Whichever format a meeting takes, it should be prepared for the same way: know your goals, know your audience, and know the English you’ll need. If your team relies on Zoom for most meetings now, our guide to English for video conferencing covers the specific phrases and etiquette that make video meetings run smoothly. For the in-person side, our overview of handling business meetings in English as a non-native speaker covers negotiation language and reading the room. Either way, our business English course is built to prepare you for both formats, not just one.

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