At OPSA we've cut down on our travel from the US to China just a bit over the last six months in order to conserve cash in case the recession continues impacting our customers and their purchases from us. I'm sure many companies that do business overseas are doing the same.
My word of caution in this regard is that it's vitally important to maintain live communciation when you can't be there in person. We use Skype for calls to our HK office and other locations in China. It has worked well for us and the quality has improved over the last two years. The video option has also been helpful for project management with our HK office.
To summarize - Being there in person is still important in successfully sourcing in Asia. However, when there are times that you can't be there as often as you'd like, it's important to use multiple communication tools (not just e-mail) to keep in touch with your Asian vendors. I need to remind myself to call more often this year.
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