Sophie Hulgard, senior vice-president of sales for Northern Europe at hospitality company Accor, believes business travel priorities have undergone a major shift after the pandemic
Balancing the undoubted benefits of face-to-face meetings with the responsibility to reduce their environmental impact is a key dilemma for businesses, particularly those that operate internationally. Increased reliance on virtual communications since the pandemic coupled with heightened awareness and urgency to reduce our carbon emissions has had a big impact on business travel.
There is still a compelling need for face-to-face meetings. Our research reveals that workers expect to make 25% more revenue through face-to-face meetings vs virtual ones, alongside achieving three times more from them, and benefitting from a range of wellbeing advantages, including social interaction with colleagues and associates.
Indeed, engaging employees and motivating them to get back on the road, when they have become used to working from home, is now a key priority for businesses. Accor’s research supports this, with professionals anticipating they will make an average of 23% more deals a year when they are able to speak to their contacts face-to-face vs virtually.
However, business travel priorities have undergone a major shift. At Accor we recently convened a panel of European business leaders responsible for corporate travel at our Masters of Travel 2022 board meeting. Our findings revealed that sustainability and wellbeing are two of the key watchwords in a world where financial budgets are increasingly being replaced by carbon ones.
In the post-pandemic world of business travel, any trip needs to justify its carbon cost – offsetting is simply no longer enough, and hotels need to prove that they are actively reducing their carbon footprint. Travelling for a meeting must now be ‘business critical’ to justify the financial and carbon cost, thus the pandemic has stimulated the emergence of ‘mindful travel’, where business travellers aim to make travel count professionally, economically, sustainably, and personally.
One example of how employers and employees have shifted to travelling with purpose includes comparing hotel and transport options using carbon calculators. At Accor, our Carbon Calculator enables travellers to understand the impact of different elements of their trip, which in turn allows them to be more conscious of their trip’s potential carbon costs.
Promoting longer stays and the ‘linger longer’ trend is also increasingly a factor for business travel. A recent Accor poll amongst travellers in Northern Europe suggested that 1 in 10 planned to extend their holiday in 2022 by working abroad and 53% loved the freedom of working from anywhere. This level of flexibility gives corporates the opportunity to simultaneously improve their employer brand and the carbon footprint of their business travel.
Businesses are also pushing the hospitality industry to prove their sustainability standards and take business travellers on the green journey. Hotels without a clear green, or target-based sustainable, programme will not be considered by travellers, and the importance of strong supplier credentials in other areas such as business ethics, responsible tourism, community engagement, diversity and inclusivity is also playing a vital role when it comes to businesses deciding where to stay.
Providing ‘lifestyle loyalty’, where business travellers are helped to experience a destination properly while on business trips, for their own mental wellbeing and employee satisfaction, is now also a key consideration. Our research suggests that 47% of workers miss social interaction with colleagues and associates.
There is also a generational shift whereby travellers are now more likely to be interested in a city tour with free bicycle hire than a room upgrade. Loyalty reward point systems need to be flexible and comprehensive and extend beyond hotel stays to include drinks and meals – a central pillar of the ALL Accor Live Limitless programme.
Business travel in a post-pandemic world enables real connections and has incredible power and value, not just in financial terms, but also in terms of increased employee satisfaction and wellbeing which ultimately converts to loyalty to employers.
However, as we look ahead into 2023 and beyond it is clear that the future of business travel must banish inconsequential trips and replace them with business-critical travel that is sustainably planned and delivers not only for the employee and the employer, but also for the planet.