Diversity Travel’s Alastair Dickenson assesses the corporate travel outlooks as the COP29 summit focuses on tourism
Today marks a landmark moment in the travel and tourism industry’s journey to net zero and to a more sustainable sector. For the first time in history, there will be a thematic day dedicated to accelerating climate action in tourism. COP29’s ‘Tourism Day’ is a welcome and much-needed development to our journey towards net zero.
Back in June of this year, I shared that the industry experiences “disappointing representation” at global climate policy events, such as the UN Climate Change conference in Azerbaijan right now, and that we also have a credibility crisis on climate change that needs to be addressed.
Having the spotlight put firmly on travel and tourism should give encouragement to those who are pushing for swifter environmental action, like Diversity Travel, but as we have seen with the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, progress can be slow and it needs support from across the entire sector to be effective.
In short, effective action is collective action, and we hope all parts of the travel and tourism industry are represented in today’s discussions, including business and leisure.
Business travel is on track for a record year in 2024, according to a recent report by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC). Global spending this year on business travel is forecast to reach more than £1 trillion which is 6.2% ahead of pre-pandemic levels.
This was further reinforced by research published this week by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) which found that 86% of business travel buyers and travel suppliers say that 2024 met or exceeded their expectations from the start of the year.
Looking ahead to next year, more than half of buyers are expecting higher travel budgets to spend and we anticipate continued growth in the number of trips.
Reasons for concern
Business travel is booming and there is widespread optimism, so why am I concerned?
While it only makes up roughly an eighth of all trips, business travel is a significant contributor to global carbon emissions. The sector has an important role to play in accelerating progress towards the overarching aim of net zero by 2050, and I don’t want to see us fall back into business-as-usual.
The aforementioned GBTA survey found that less than one in five (19%) corporate travel programmes next year will strategically prioritise sustainability. To compare, almost half (49%) of organisations say they will prioritise the return-on-investment of travel in their programmes and 42% say traveller experience and wellbeing is a strategic priority.
There has been excellent progress made in reducing global emissions across travel and tourism in the past few years, but we need to continue to build momentum into 2025. Tourism Day will present a unique opportunity for the industry to be front-and-centre of global climate discussions, bringing forward creative solutions and reaffirming sustainability commitments.
Organisations across the travel sector have an obligation to echo these shared commitments with both business and leisure travel clients next year.
Earlier this month, I held a sustainability workshop in Rotterdam, Netherlands, with a number of our clients and suppliers, including major European airlines, where we discussed ways to reduce the carbon impact of travellers, and how to implement these. And next year, we will be announcing a series of product developments that will further empower our clients, including corporate travellers, to make well-informed, sustainable travel decisions throughout an entire journey.
If we are to capitalise on this landmark day, accountability and engagement is needed from all parties across travel and tourism.