Corporate travel is returning, with the Global Business Travel Association reporting “surging” demand. However, the latest GBTA poll suggests the sector will not return to its pre-pandemic level.
The member survey in early April found three-quarters of respondents’ companies (74%) now permit international travel, up from 48% in February, with 45% “usually” sanctioning a trip. Less than half (45%) reported cancelling or suspending most international trips in the previous month, down from 71% in February.
Half the companies (52%) which had cancelled or suspended most international travel planned to resume within the next three months.
Only one in five (20%) reported cancelling domestic business trips – down from 33% in February – and 80% allowed some domestic travel, up from 67% in February.
Nine out of 10 travel management companies (TMCs) and suppliers (88%) reported increased bookings in the previous month, up from 45% in February, while travel buyers reported bookings at 56% of pre-pandemic levels on average, up from 34% in February.
However, only 39% of TMCs and suppliers and 44% of travel buyers reported bookings at 50% or more of pre-pandemic levels.
Two in five (41%) reported they had increased employee travel spending for flights and 34% for hotel stays because of inflation.
Yet crucially, 80% of travel managers reported the pandemic had prompted changes in company travel policies.
Two in five (39%) said their company would make fewer trips than in the past and (37%) said travellers would both make fewer trips and be expected to get more from each. One in four respondents (24%) reported an increase in trip-approval requirements and 23% reported re-evaluating how employees travel – for example, considering the type of transport or a hotel’s sustainability credentials.
More than half the travel managers polled (54%) expected fewer trips per employee – 71% in Europe compared with 47% in North America. Just 24% of travel managers thought there would be no drop in the number of business trips. One in three globally (34%) and 58% in Europe expected a rise in rail travel, with 59% in Europe expecting business trips to be longer on average.
GBTA chief executive Suzanne Neufang reported “significant gains in the return of business travel over the past month or two . . . even as the industry faces challenges beyond Covid-19”.
But the poll findings tally with forecasts that a proportion of business travel may not return.
Ernst & Young (EY) global head of travel Karen Hutchings told an aviation conference this month that the group planned “no day trips, going by rail instead of air where we can and [cutting] the volume of people going to meetings”, noting: “We have a CO2 reduction target.” (Travel Weekly, April 14).
GBTA surveyed 520 members on April 4-12.