Over half of the annual guests at Swedish hotels are supplied by the corporate sector. These guests are made up of individuals who travel for meetings, conferences, or presentations as a part of their job. Access to meals while travelling is essential and introduces added complexity to business travelers' everyday lives. These meals, and the pattern in which they are consumed, are part of the individual traveler's personal and group identities. Therefore, the aim of this article is to study if business travelers deviate from their habitual meal patterns and, if so, what changes they make. To further the understanding of this group's meal patterns, a questionnaire was created and distributed. It was answered by 538 self-identified business travelers. These business travelers were made up of three groups: solo travelers, group travelers, and individuals who traveled both in groups as well as alone. Pearson's chi-squared test was used to analyze differences in actions related to the meal pattern between groups. The analysis showed that changes in the meal pattern did occur in some instances. However, the majority of the business travelers adhered to their habitual meal pattern while adjusting their behavior depending on the time of day. Managers of catering suppliers gaining insight into the meal habits of business travelers could help to ease an otherwise stressful situation by supplying meals, as a context, that fit with the business traveler's habitual patterns and meal contexts.

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Business travellers make up a large part of the customer base for the Swedish hospitality industry, accounting for 54% of the occupancy rate of Swedish hotels in 2018. Yet, very little is known about their meal habits while being at the destination of a business trip. This, even though the handling of meals in an environment that is less known to the traveller could add to the complexity of everyday life. Therefore, this study is aimed to explore actions performed by business travellers at the destination of travel as part of their meal practice with the purpose of elucidating the meal habits of this group. The research is theoretically framed within the context of social identity theory and social practice theory. A questionnaire was filled out by 538 Swedish business travellers recruited by means of self-sampling; 77% of the respondents were men, and 77% were above 45 years of age. The majority of the respondents, 67%, travelled over 50 days per annum, and 59% were located in the highest income quartile. The analysis of the data generated a general overview of the actions performed in relation to the meal, while also showing differences in actions taken based on income and gender. Women were significantly more price conscious than men and to a larger extent used technical assistance to find somewhere to eat. When travelling alone they also reported eating faster than at home and bringing back food and eat at the hotel room more often than men did. Men, in contrast, exhibited an inclination towards seeking social contexts to insert themselves in during dinners when travelling alone, as to be able to eat together with other people. The, relatively, lower income group showed more price consciousness as well as used the help of technical assistance to find somewhere to eat.

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