Businesswomen keep travel agents busy

Businesswomen are on the move and the travel industry is having a hard time keeping up with them, according to a panel of travel and consumer experts. Although business trips taken by women have recently climbed a dramatic 60 percent, many travel-related businesses have yet to make sufficient accommodations to meet their needs, the panelists agreed.

"Women business travelers have a much lower rate of renting cars than men, for example," commented Jane Fitzgibbon, senior vice-president of Yankelovich, Skelly, and White, the market reseach firm. "There has to be some reason for that and there have to be some marketing tactics that can be developed. But painting cars pink is not the way. Don't patronize women.

"In hotels, for example, just putting skirt hangers in the closet, just the simplest thing, can help meet the ne eds of women, and it's so seldom done," she continued.