According to the latest Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) survey of over 595 industry experts, the business travel industry can expect to see further gains in 2023.
Last month, the GBTA released the findings of their Business Travel Recovery Poll, which provided important data and positive conclusions. According to the survey, the business travel sector will experience a continued boom as a result of the post-pandemic booking increase. Nearly 600 business travel buyers, suppliers, and other stakeholders from around the world participated in the survey.
The business travel sector, which is worth a staggering $1.4 trillion worldwide, has largely recovered from the effects of the pandemic, according to the GBTA. Whilst this is obviously good news, it’s important to understand the scale of the damage that was caused by almost 18 months of near total shutdown. The industry may now be flourishing but many firms sustained losses they couldn’t ride out. Airlines were forced to take government bailouts and firms reliant on the travel sector as a whole had to make tough decisions, if they were able to survive at all.
The survey found that for domestic travel, most business travel industry professionals estimated that bookings were at roughly 63% of pre-pandemic levels. Whereas for international travel, the number was just 50%, suggesting we’ve a long way to go before we see the international traffic volumes of 2019. In fact only 10% of respondents said they thought bookings were up to 100% of where they were.
Looking ahead to future travel requirements the survey concluded that concerns about COVID-19 have dropped dramatically and only 11% of respondents envisaged this impacting business travel in 2023. Instead it was the wider concern about global economic conditions that worried most respondents, with 67% claiming that inflation and recession fears were most likely to curtail business travel planning in the year ahead.
Most buyers in the industry said they would be taking a “wait-and-see” approach to business travel bookings in 2023, indicating they would consider limiting future business travel but only if economic conditions worsen. 30% of respondents meanwhile claimed they were unlikely to limit business travel in 2023 due to economic concerns.
When looking at the impact of remote and hybrid working there have naturally been questions over whether new working practices lessen the need for frequent business travel. However, 72% of those surveyed claimed that flexible working would not influence the number of business trips taken within the company.
The most popular working practice reported was a hybrid model, with 68% of respondents saying their companies expected employees to work from the office on some days but work from home the rest of the time. Just 12% reported they expected employees to work full time from the office.
Interestingly there was a very even split in the number of staff asking for business trips combined with leisure, so called “bleisure” travel. 41% reported they had seen an increase in demand for this kind of blended travel whilst 42% claimed they had not. It seems that reports that bleisure travel is the new normal may have been overstated although its popularity undoubtedly continues to grow.
Most respondents saw no reason employees would be worried about travel any longer, with 86% saying staff would be willing to travel for business in the current environment. Just 1% thought there’d be any unwillingness to travel which is good news for a sector crippled by pandemic fears just 18 months ago.
When looking at travel providers such as airlines and hotels, 79% of respondents claimed that their bookings had increased, with just 6% reporting a decrease.
Finally, most travel managers claimed to be optimistic (50%) or very optimistic (27%) about the business travel industry’s path to recovery, with just 6% pessimistic. This reflects the positive figures in terms of bookings and demand for international travel once more.
Here at Traveltrust we’re very confident that the sector is bouncing back as strong as it possibly can and we look forward to continued growth and demand for business travel. If you’re looking to work with a respected travel management company to support your corporate travel needs just get in touch with us.