Corporate travel is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels of spending “until 2026”, according to Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) regional vice-president Catherine Logan, but she told the recent A World for Travel forum in Nimes: “There is a real drive for it to come back sustainably.”
She noted a GBTA survey earlier this year found 89% of industry respondents saw sustainability as “essential”, 80% reported having a sustainability programme and 76% planned to incorporate sustainable practices into travel policies.
However, 36% of respondents and 57% of external stakeholders consulted reported business travel is “only slightly” or “not at all advanced” on sustainability.
Almost two-thirds (63%) of GBTA members reported a lack of emissions data as the biggest barrier to sustainability.
They also identified cost, regulatory uncertainty and the lack of harmonisation on standards as barriers to advancing.
Kit Brennan of carbon calculator and offset platform Thrust Carbon noted: “There can be a variance of 55% between calculations of the carbon footprint of a trip at the moment.”