According to GBTA global business travel spend is expected to surge this year with a full recovery predicted in 2024. Is your organisation embracing travel again?
Our short blog discusses why business travel is proceeding at a slower pace than expected and the opportunities and insights in a post-Covid world.
The road to recovery and back to business travel is considerably different for every organisation however, we still must endure and overcome the same challenges including Covid related disruptions to travel, supply chain delays, labour shortages, increased living/energy costs and different stages of recovery across the globe.
For some organisations/sectors, Covid has had a positive impact accelerating their growth curve but for most it’s been a challenging time and there is still a level of uncertainty. The GBTA highlighted emerging factors including adoption of remote working models, reduced travel volumes, and the increased focus on sustainability practices for business travel which are all guaranteed to have a profound effect, but the full impact is yet to be realised.
For every challenge there is an opportunity, and it seems that business travellers themselves are keen to return to travel. The GBTA reported that 86% of those surveyed need travel to accomplish their business goals and over half (54%) miss traveling and are hoping to travel more often in the future. Business travel is showing signs of recovery with the workforce returning to the office and more in person conferences and trade shows taking place.
Our five insights post Covid:
- Organisations and travel managers will have to review their polices and practices to fully evaluate travel as it will be under a higher level of scrutiny from a duty of care perspective, sustainability, and ROI.
- Organisations will be looking for a tech solution to provide insight, better visibility, improved efficiency and to save money.
- Employee wellbeing has become a priority as Covid acted as a wake-up call for many organisations and it will enter boardroom agendas and discussions more now than ever before.
- Informed decision making through information, knowledge and research is imperative with the evolving health pandemic, country restrictions, different stages in the global recovery and vaccination rollouts.
- The road back to pre-Covid corporate travel will be slower than leisure travel. Business owners and directors see the value in face-to-face connections, and it is likely that travel for sales and client meetings will return first.
At Securewest we help organisations with their Travel Risk Management requirements from providing pre-travel support, developing and reviewing policies and best practices, to offering a world-leading technology employee and travel safety platform and operating a 24/7 Global Response Centre. If your organisation is travelling again or is thinking about returning to travel and would like to find out more about our services, please contact our team sales@securewest.com