According to the GBTA’s Business Travel Index Outlook report, business travel is almost at pre-pandemic revenue levels; but rapidly changing company policies on business travel, scrutiny on sustainability and employee wellbeing, and a constantly moving supply chain are bringing challenges.
During COVID businesses discovered the power of video conferencing and virtual catch ups, but business travel is not just about people travelling for meetings, it involves events, conferences and going on longer stays at other offices, commuting for work and getting colleagues together in person, with an increased demand for team meetings and incentives.
There are further trends around employee wellness, duty of care, ESG goals, ‘Bleisure’, the rising costs of everything and corporate demands for longer RFPs and payment terms. More complex digitalisation calls for more tech to pull all the tech together, and there has been a very sudden increase in corporate travel through the OTAs bringing challenges for hotel booking and payment processes, such as virtual credit cards, corporate payments and submitting invoices.
