Amex M&E evolves Meetings Insights platform. The new capabilities include real-time data served by APIs and a self-service approach with customizable reports and dashboards.
Business+Travel
BTN Europe's Business Travel Outlook 2023. Will business travel recovery continue apace in 2023 or will gathering headwinds knock it off course?. If the contributors’ thoughts shared are representative of the wider community, it would seem that recession and rising travel costs are uppermost on the industry’s collective mind.
Microsoft promotes purposeful travel. Business travel must evolve to have higher impact, lower footprint and greater inclusivity. Microsoft Travel’s "Purposeful Travel Summit" included travel managers, consultants and airline, hotel, travel management company and travel technology executives.
GBTA Sustainability Summit 2022 highlights. Radical collaboration across all stakeholders is essential to unlocking the green transition. Business travel has an opportunity to play a leading role and become the frontrunner in reducing emissions now while also scaling up the next generation of solutions.
Flight Centre's business travel trends 2023. The travel journey will become more digitized and new industry partnerships will emerge to improve and expand the choices available to travelers.
What if we’re managing travel all wrong? The 'less travel, better results' strategy does so by ignoring the quest for low prices and cost savings. It works by using four principles.
STR: The current state of business travel. As business travel advances, consumers indicate combination trips will lead further gains. A key barometer of business travel, weekday hotel occupancy has improved in the post-summer months with September and October producing levels just four percent below the 2019 comparables.
Egencia launches well-being dashboard. The dashboard helps companies track metrics related to traveler well-being, including benchmarking data among other clients.
TripStax acquires Hotelzon from Travelport. The acquisition will enable TripStax to bolster its tech offering with a fully integrated hotel booking tool for TMCs and corporations.
Rebound of business travel demand faces new hurdles. Corporate travel managers banning non-essential business travel. The recovery of business travel has been inconsistent across the U.S., and now new hurdles arise as companies are tightening travel budgets amid a slowing economy.
Easyjet sees Q4 business travel uptick. The business travel volumes for the quarter came close to 2019 levels, driven largely by SMEs, which account for 75% of easyJet’s business travel.
Business travel in Spain sees 'intense' recovery. The intensity of the recovery of corporate travel in the Spanish market has far exceeded some of the projections made by large consultants.
The new order of business travel. Can the sustainability agenda make the need and want to think twice about travel last?. Business travel has reduced a lot, remote and hybrid work are now the new normal - a significant shift that may have come from expediency, rather than a desire to save the environment.
How hotels can streamline the business travel experience. Today’s business travelers expect frictionless experiences, especially when it comes to managing expenses.
More virtual credit cards coming to hotels. Digitization of travel payments with virtual cards helps address the challenges associated with B2B leisure and corporate travel payments.
Corporate travel trends hospitality brands can’t ignore in 2023. As work and leisure travel blend together, hospitality brands must adapt and evolve to meet shifting demands.
Business travel’s rebound hit by a slowing economy. Companies starting to ban nonessential business travel and increase number of executives needed to approve trips. By the early fall, domestic business travel was back up to nearly two-thirds of its pre-pandemic level. But companies have now begun to cut back.
Europe: Business travel set for 75% recovery in 2022. Trend of lengthening lead times to continue next year. Forecasts by Advantage, the second largest TMC network in Europe, showed that bookings this year would be up by 83% on 2021, although still 25% lower than in 2019.
BCD: Remote work needs attention in security policies. Shift from travel risk management to people risk management as workforces have changed in recent years.
Corporate travel hitting walls in price negotiations. Large corporate travel programs have been surprised by difficulties as they return to the negotiating table with suppliers.
Return of business travel pushes up London hotel rates. Increased midweek demand from business travelers helped to push average hotel rates in London above pre-Covid levels in October.
GBTA: Corporate travel ‘committed to sustainable revival.’ Corporate travel is not expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2026, but there is a real drive for it to come back sustainably.
Hotels bullish on business, group demand in 2023. Weekday bookings increase in Q3. Executives from publicly traded hotel brand companies and real estate investment trusts say they expect business transient and group demand to continue to recover.
Amex GBT’s optimism stops at year-end. The macroeconomic outlook for 2023 has become challenging, making it difficult to predict the impact on business travel demand in 2023.
How businesses adapt to post-pandemic corporate travel. Company events, seasonal gatherings, and corporate retreats driving more business travel than previously. Traditionally, we think of business travel as getting on a plane to meet with a client or to attend a conference, but the new landscape is driving changes to that definition.
Cvent: Time for Hotels to ‘group up’. With a likely recession in sight, now is the time to lock your business on the books, and get contracts signed, so people can't cancel at the last minute.
Hoteliers less positive about health of business travel. Business transient demand is a different animal than group demand. As business from corporate accounts typically slows down in the fourth quarter, many hoteliers across the U.S. are now looking to the first quarter of 2023 for an improved mix of sales.
Hoteliers taking a tougher stance on rate negotiations with corporate clients. Clients want breakfasts, sustainability and last room availability. Though visibility overall has increased, U.S. hoteliers negotiating corporate accounts for 2023 are seeking the right balance of rates and services, taking inflation into consideration.
Siemens mandates hotel sustainability reporting. Hotels have to provide environmental data, including information on energy, water, and waste per occupied room night.
Hybrid work model a boon to business travel. United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says the hybrid work trend has created a "permanent, step-level increase" in demand for business travel.
Amex GBTA: 2023 Global Meetings and Events Forecast. Hotel group pricing power shows no signs of slowing down going into 2023. The report points to rising meetings volumes, while not yet surpassing pre-pandemic levels, still overwhelming a market struggling to ramp up venue availability and services after the shutdown.
Can the metaverse maximize hybrid work? Working in the metaverse could solve the most persistent problems associated with remote employment.
Hilton CEO talks business. Sees business travel from small and medium companies above 2019 levels, as they are getting back to doing the basic things needed to run their business.
U.S. hotel business travel revenue expected to come within 1% of 2019 levels. Recovery remains uneven, particularly in major cities where business travel continues to lag. U.S. hotel leisure travel revenue is projected to end 2022 14% above 2019 levels, while hotel business travel revenue is expected to come within 1% of 2019 levels, according to a new analysis by AHLA.
Sabre on the shifting shape of corporate travel in APAC. An increase in bookings, a switch to low-cost carriers, and a focus on new technology. The majority of corporate travel agents have changed their business priorities as a result of the pandemic, and are now focused on optimizing costs and efficiencies.
Concerns grow over lack of business travel. U.S. Travel Association calling on Congress to support temporary tax provisions to restore business travel spending. Overall passenger numbers are currently down just four percent from 2019 levels – but business travel is down 26 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. And that’s a big deal for airlines and hotels.
Hotels overload on wellness in battle to host company retreats. Tapping into the rising trend for work wellbeing. The sky's the limit for the hospitality sector, coming up with ideas like "togtherness programs" and offering increasingly bizarre spiritual and nature-based activities. But for how long will companies take the bait?
Egencia updates its mobile app. New self-service options now enabled travelers and users responsible for approving travel to change flight and hotel bookings within the app.
Hoteliers expect salespeople to lead the return of business travel. Competition and capitalism are going to get people on the road, and salespeople are going to lead the way. Because large, international corporations are still not on the road at the same level as they have been, hotel sales departments are largely focusing on local corporate businesses and local business.
Economy overtakes COVID-19 as obstacle to business travel’s recovery. Greatest threat to bookings is posed by travel budgets being frozen or reduced due to record-high inflation. As the recovery of international business travel has hit the halfway mark, economic concerns have replaced COVID-19 as the segment’s main roadblock.
Why business travel has permanently changed. Corporations have recognized that they can get their business done with fewer flights taken. Some are still clinging to the myth that business traffic has not really changed and it’s just a matter of time until things go back to the way they were. There are five reasons this view is outdated.
GBTA: Business travel continues bouncing back with a strong outlook for 2023. Domestic volume back to 63% and international business travel back to 50% of their 2019 levels. Bookings and spending continue to recover, international travel narrows the gap on domestic travel, economic concerns eclipse COVID-19, even as higher expectations prevail for 2023.
Hotel prices to rise at lower rates in 2023. The global economic outlook is unlikely to allow them to achieve rate rises on the same scale as seen in 2022, says Amex GBT.
Cvent sees events sector stabilize as demand returns. Digitization has helped to enhance the event experience for delegates and will continue to propel the industry forward.
UK firms plan to increase business travel in 2023. Two-thirds of UK companies plan to increase spending on business travel by at least 50 per cent over the next year, according to Amex.
How company off-sites are changing business travel. Purpose differs markedly from the goals of traditional business travel. But for many remote-first companies, business travel now means bringing employees together from their far-flung homes to work and meet in person.
Slow but sustained return to the workplace. Employees have grown to love the flexibility of remote working, and firms keen to keep their staff can do little about it.
The no-work work trip. Corporate groups more interested in team bonding than boardrooms. Hoteliers across the U.S. are noticing a new travel demand segment picking up: the "no-work work trip," in which corporate groups focus more on team bonding.
So is this it for business travel? J.D. Power’s research has found that many travelers doubt that travel levels will increase dramatically from where they are now.
Navigating the new hotel landscape. Corporate travel buyers are discovering that the hotel landscape is more complex, fragmented, and challenging than ever before.
The need for more efficient and intelligent business travel. End-to-end spend management completely reinvents how companies pay, account for and manage travel, says Amadeus.
Amex GBT: Hotel prices to rise again in 2023. Ongoing hotel industry struggles will lead to higher prices for corporate hotel programs. Hotel rates worldwide will increase again in 2023 thanks to pent-up demand for in-person meetings, but at a rate lower than 2022 due to the economic climate.
Recession fears shift from 'if' to 'how deep' for hoteliers. Is the corporate traveler going to come back this quarter or next quarter?. Business travel will determine whether the hotel industry dives into a deep downturn or if it returns to a more typical business mix like what was seen pre-pandemic.
Staffing remains a “massive struggle” for TMCs. Recruitment issues are hampering business travel’s recovery as many have left the industry and found opportunities elsewhere.
BTN's 2022 Corporate Travel 100. More and more TMCs report active recruitment campaigns and record hiring and re-hiring levels as business travel ramps up.
Business and leisure has always been blended. Naming something doesn’t make it it new, but can bring awareness to it. Rather than look for the unicorns that will replace lost business travelers, the large U.S. airlines would be better off accepting the new reality and make changes to accommodate it.
What is a compelling reason to come into the office? While people around the world have been returning to restaurants, concerts, and travel, there’s one place many of them aren’t going: the office.
Business travel is coming back much slower than hoped. Hoteliers hold on to a lot of hope for the medium and long term. Throughout the summer months, hoteliers held out hope that as the seasons shifted, a long-awaited business travel rebound would be there to fill the gap.
TMCs go beyond negotiating supplier deals. Evolution driving tremendous change across the business travel ecosystem. The C-suite is more likely to promote the digitizing of more processes, implementation of sustainability initiatives, and steps to enhance satisfaction and security.
Web 3.0 unleashing the possibilities for corporate travel. Despite significant changes, the travel business is now emerging as a success. As the industry begins to embrace Travel 3.0, powered by a wave of innovations build on consumer mobile technology, it can be anticipated that bigger changes are on the way.
Companies rethinking travel because of sky-high airfares. TMCs seeing a hyper-awareness around travel spend. Flying business class has always been beyond the means of most fliers. Now even companies can’t afford fares that have soared as the world tries to reconnect in the wake of Covid.
All eyes on corporate travel. The savings that come with slimmed-down travel programs may be too good to pass up, especially with inflation concerns.
CWT RoomIt on how the rapid rebound of travel is impacting supply and demand dynamics and what that means for its clients and their hotel programs.
German business travelers taking longer trips post-pandemic. Popularity of the one-day business trip has been “waning” since 2020, with the average length of stay now being at least two days.
US companies step up travel. Leisure bookings remain unexpectedly strong. US companies are overlooking uncertainty about the economy and booking fall trips at nearly six times last year’s rate after a flat summer for business travel.
Business travelers prefer events now. Need for teams to gather might become significant business-travel segment in the future. Compared to individual business travel, more employees are more likely to attend corporate meetings and association conferences.
Another blow to business travel recovery. Google’s new "critical trips only" policy is emblematic of a travel trend that could pose a longer-term challenge to airlines and hotels.
Returning to offices triggers corporate travel demand. As soon as people get back in the office, the sooner they’re going to get out on the road.
How hotels adapt to changing business traveler. Corporate travelers seek longer stays, more focus on sustainability and experiences. The business travelers who are back are often exhibiting different travel habits and behavior. Many are wearing less formal business attire, opting for hoodies instead.
Google restricts employee travel to “business critical” trips. Social functions, full-team off-sites and employee travel to in-person events that have a virtual option shouldn’t be approved by Google managers.
Flight shame: Do you really need to take that business flight?. Video conferencing as an entry point to creating demand for travel. Do you need to be taking that journey? Is it really worth it? And can we really, hand on heart, justify getting on a plane for a conference that could happen online?
Work from home is killing business-class travel. Despite all the fancy new lounges popping up at major airports, American workers are about as eager to hop on a business flight as they are to return to the office.
Current state of bleisure travel. More and better experiences boost hotel revenue potential. As leisure travel continues to show strength and group and business travel continue to recover, the bleisure traveler concept is still evolving.
Many corporate travelers have yet to return to road or skies. Business travel remains about 25% to 30% below 2019 levels. The whole challenge for the industry is around the return of the corporate traveler, and whether he is going to come back in enough volume and frequency that is going to help these airlines.
Groups, business travelers booking hotels closer to arrival. Shorter, more casual stays another trend. The pandemic has changed the size of groups and how they meet once they are on property, but it has not changed their over-arching objective: To network.
Travel buyers see risk of fraud growing. Nearly 70 percent of travel buyers say their business travelers have been affected by a payment-related data breach.
Future role of the travel manager. Travel managers’ golden opportunity to become strategic superheroes. Safety: we need to speak to the travel manager. Sustainability: we need to speak to the travel manager. Work/life balance: we need to speak to the travel manager again.
Events groups face more competition for hotel room nights, rates. Meeting and events business is returning to U.S. hotels slowly and not evenly distributed across all markets.
Business travel will never make a comeback. New report suggests the decline in briefcase-toting passengers may well be permanent. Among people who traveled for work at least three times a year before the pandemic, a striking two in five Americans say they never expect to travel for business again.
Choice Hotels launches direct pay program. Corporate customers can now make a single payment for all stays, at all hotels through weekly consolidated invoicing.
How business travel could change in a new hybrid working model. Relationship building and cross-company collaborations will remain central. In the hybrid working model, optimal travel might be somewhere in between in-person (100 percent travel) and the virtual (0 percent) world, at half pre-pandemic business travel levels.
Cayuga Hospitality: The state of events. The demand for live events is back with a balance between hybrid and virtual, and they need to have an experiential and emotional connection.
Egencia stresses independence under new owner Amex GBT. The brand is that it can act as a stepping stone, and smaller companies can use Egencia to go from an unmanaged travel program to a managed one.
Group demand for US hotels continues positive momentum. Group bookings increase in June according to STR, while individual business travel continues to lag. New trend in the decrease in one-to-one trips and increase in teams choosing an industry conference as a reason to get together after two years of remote connection.
TMCs must facilitate 'better' travel. Average trip costs are rising as organizations and individuals adopt 'quality not quantity' attitude. While predictions about the return to pre-pandemic travel vary greatly, one trend is coming through: the average spend per trip is increasing, with more ancillaries included.
Concur rebuilds from scratch for younger business travelers. SAP Concur Travel is getting its first overhaul in more than 15 years, in a bid to make the platform more flexible.
Business travel slow to recover. Remote-work policies, tech, state of economy all play roles. Hotel demand from business travelers, which has been the slowest to bounce back in the U.S. hotel industry’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, will return to peak 2019 levels by the end of next year.
German business travelers taking longer trips than pre-Covid. The trend toward longer business trips is an indication that sustainability is becoming increasingly important for companies.
TMCs continue to play vital role in business travel’s return. GBTA study explores how technology has impacted the travel manager’s role, the traveler experience, and the TMC business.
Economic headwinds to delay full corporate travel recovery. Many macroeconomic conditions deteriorated rapidly in early 2022, affecting the business travel recovery. The Global Business Travel Association projected global business travel spending won't reach pre-pandemic levels until 2026, two years later than its prior projection, issued in November.
Hybrid-working genie is out of the bottle. UK workers going into office less than 1.5 days a week. A new report found that those working in the banking industry had the highest average weekly office attendance rate at 47%, while the tech and logistics industries were most likely to work from home.
Most business travelers experiencing disruption on trips. Level of disruption is having an impact on employees’ willingness to travel. The majority of business travelers in the UK and France have experienced some kind of travel disruption during recent trips, according to a survey by TMC Egencia.
Business travelers set to see hotel rates rise by 8.2% in 2023. Global travel prices to continue to increase according to CWT's 2023 Global Business Travel Forecast. Hotel prices have already eclipsed 2019 levels in some areas such as Europe, the Middle East & Africa and North America and are expected do so globally by 2023.
Companies are tightening travel budgets. Most expensive and least necessary business flights have been replaced by video calls. Airlines have told investors they expect the lucrative sale of business travel flights to recover soon. But corporate travel managers - the people in charge of booking flights for big businesses - aren’t so sure.
Group travel is back, but where will business-transient land? Business-transient demand is still way behind pre-pandemic levels and what's back is elusive, changing and different.
Marriott predicts corporate rate hikes in the 'high single digits.' Corporate travel R/N recovered to just 9% below 2019 levels in June, compared to 20% below in Q1.
Egencia and TripActions on business travel evolution. Creating a leisure travel booking experience for business travel has been the goal for some time, but it remains elusive.
The evolution of hotel group demand. Thursday Nights shaping up as battleground between leisure and group. Group business is beginning to pick up slowly, but capturing wallets and loyalty from this potentially profitable sector comes with a few extra challenges.
The five headwinds threatening business travel this autumn. Will political, economic and environmental pressures begin to tell?. Businesses are looking at how much they spend and how frequently they travel, and potentially that will create a long-term challenge.
Business trips set to fall and be ‘more purposeful’. Accor expecting 20% fewer business trips this year compared to 2019. A panel of European business leaders responsible for corporate travel from across ten industries convened by Accor on a world where financial budgets are being replaced by carbon ones.
Hilton optimistic business travel upturn will endure. Large corporate clients have recovered to about 80 percent of 2019-level. Increase in business travel is being driven by pent-up demand by corporates feeling pressure to conduct in-person business in a jittery economic environment.
Rising to the challenge. Staff shortages, widespread travel disruption and rising costs affect all corporates, but are small companies facing a bigger challenge?
CWT launches NDC initiative. In August, travel advisors will be able to book and service NDC content from Singapore Airlines and Air France-KLM via Amadeus.
Unmanaged accounts lead corporate travel recovery. American Airlines' business travel revenue is "fully recovered" compared with 2019, led by unmanaged or lightly managed accounts.
Marriott hosts customer conference in NYC. THE EXCHANGE brought together 1,072 customers, hoteliers and industry leaders to engage and rally around new approaches to doing business.
How hotels are bringing back corporate groups. Meeting formats are changing. To help incentivize companies to book in-person gatherings, hotels have been thinking beyond the boardroom, leaning into unconventional experiences centered around team building, mental health, wellness, sustainability, and more.
Egencia and Amex GBT get closer. Egencia customers are now able to access the meetings and consulting services of new parent company American Express Global Business Travel.
Europe: Business travel to surpass 2019 levels. Significant levels of optimism amongst corporate travel managers, according to new Cvent report. Three quarters of respondents expect their organization’s 2022 travel volume to eclipse 2019 levels, with more than a third citing they expect volumes to “increase significantly”.
Corporate meetings drive event growth. Meetings and events volume in the U.S. increased 334 percent in June 2022 compared with June 2021, according to meetings data provider Knowland.
Business travel recovery stalls after spring performance surge. Stall at 20% off pre-pandemic levels make companies consider a new business strategy. Corporate travel bookings were down 65% from 2019 levels in January and improved to being only about 20% down in May. Though, they have been stuck at those levels since that time.
Next-gen in-person events now require digital components. For organizations planning their event calendars, simply returning to pre-pandemic strategies for in-person events isn’t an option.
The future of blended travel. How people think about their work and travel plans. IHG published a report using data from travelers in the U.S. and the U.K. to pinpoint the latest trends in travel that combines elements of leisure travel with business trips.
Consumer sentiment toward business travel remains mixed. Consumers warm to business travel but pandemic-era caution lingers. Hotel performance data indicates that business travel is returning with significant improvement in midweek hotel demand in the U.S., U.K. and Europe.
Hotel guests continue to blend business and leisure trips. More companies seeing the value of letting employees work while traveling for personal reasons. With business transient demand not approaching 2019 levels soon, hoteliers say there are signs that business travel is alive and well in their hotels, just in a different form.
TMCs remain upbeat despite staffing issues. Travel management companies are optimistic about their prospects for 2022, according to research conducted for BTN Europe.
Amadeus: GDS bookings for May reached 74% of the same period in 2019, with the majority of room nights booked still non-negotiated, but corporate bookings growing to 42% in May.
How we meet matters. Business leaders are wrestling with the pros and cons of returning to the office, meeting in person, and the need to travel for business meetings.
Face-to-face meeting will become the norm again. Lack of face-to-face meetings harmed new opportunities. A new report finds that 89 percent of office workers are confident that face-to-face meeting will become the norm again by the end of the year.
Corporate demand for serviced apartments on the rise. The main factors for choosing serviced apartments over hotels are traveler preference, total cost of stay and traveler wellbeing.
Reducing business travel. Despite agreement that reducing business travel will harm long-term sales, half of the companies still have policies restricting business travel.
IATA's NDC adoption low with corporates. Ten years after the introduction of its New Distribution Capability, corporate travel bookings using those protocols remain a drop in the bucket.
Amex GBT adds virtual assistant to mobile app. The AI-powered service recognizes the user and can immediately fulfill simple requests or gather information before transferring to a live travel consultant.
GBTA: Travelers willing, suppliers optimistic. Share of business travelers willing to travel up 82% since April. Many business travel processes are returning to normal as employees prepare to hit the road, and travel suppliers remain optimistic that Covid-19 is a declining factor in travel demand.
Europe's leading TMCs 2022. Some long-established names were unable to ride out the pandemic's devastation. BTN's annual report provides an indispensable look at the leading TMCs in the UK, Germany and France and, for the first time, standalone rankings for Spain and Italy.
The issues "du jour" for travel managers. The pandemic is not the only - or even the top - issue travel managers are juggling right now. Corporate travel buyers cite government policies/restrictions, COVID infection rates and staffing shortages as having a significant impact on their corporate travel programs.
Trip avoidance top travel management tactic for 2022. The new directive for corporate travel is to save money and get the greatest ROI for travel.
Corporate travelers not happy with their current travel levels. Companies are returning to pre-pandemic levels of travel, but that travel is being spread out among a smaller group of employees.
International business travel unlikely to recover until at least 2026. Many challenges lie ahead for international business travel. Despite some encouraging signs of revival for the overall travel industry in 2022, the business travel sector is witnessing a slower-than-expected recovery, particular regarding international travel.
China's business travel market to surpass pre-pandemic levels by 2024. Trip.com white paper delves into the trends defining the reviving corporate travel management sector in mainland China.
Business travel showing first significant signs of recovery. But a return to pre-pandemic levels remains far off. There remains mixed consumer sentiment toward business travel as well as a large gap between current volume and pre-pandemic comparables, according to the latest STR data.
Four Seasons on corporate travel and company culture. Business travel now viewed as part of self-care and work-life balance. While workers have a high level of enthusiasm for business travel again, they are reappraising and reevaluating it, as there is no desire to return to the old road warrior days.
Business flights are in trouble in the world of net zero. Flying for work is becoming trickier at many big companies. Is it just cost-cutting or meeting ever more exacting net zero targets - the pandemic was an epic lesson in how much business can be done over Zoom and CFOs worldwide have taken note.
CWT rolling out a subscription-fee model. The pricing model sets a monthly fee for clients that covers all products and services procured from CWT.
Amex GBT becomes publicly traded company. The company will begin trading as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “GBTG” on May 31, 2022.
U.S. domestic and short-haul business trips back to 2019 levels. Long-haul traffic remains considerably down on pre-pandemic volumes. A new report integrates booking data from Mastercard transactions as well as IATA passenger data and Google Community Mobility Reports tohighlight the cautious return of business travel.
Kayak on Kayak for Business. Steve Hafner talks to PhocusWire about the ups and downs of operating in the pandemic as well as the challenges Kayak for Business faces now.
Business travel demand will slow to meet sustainability targets. As major corporations look to reduce emissions, business travel might very well get increasingly bumped. While there has been a spike in business travel demand, airlines and hotels may have cause to worry as companies will exceedingly look to curb their emissions.
Large client travel demand accelerating. American Express Global Business Travel has upped its revenue outlook for this year as business travel recovery has shown "strong momentum."
To what extent has business travel returned?. TMCs still running at just 56% of 2019 bookings. Although industry surveys point to some bright spots in the business travel recovery, other data shows there is still a way to go to match pre-pandemic levels.
Corporate travel directly linked to restrictions. While bookings may not have reached pre-Covid levels, there’s mounting evidence of a rebound, the strength of which is taking some by surprise.
Business travel resumes, though not at its former pace. Significant upswings in small business meetings, larger conventions and trade shows. U.S. domestic travel has returned faster than international. And some destinations like Las Vegas are rebounding more quickly than big cities like New York.
Cvent charts future of business travel. Company will host its annual Travel Summit on Tuesday, May 24th - register here for the complimentary virtual event.
Cvent Hospitality Cloud revenue up more than 17 percent. Hotels are feeling confident again to invest in in-person events and attract buyers to take advantage of their products and services.
The evolution of the RFP. As the industry powers back into life with a busy calendar of meetings and events, the RFP process evolved and is playing a crucial role in the sector’s recovery.
Flight shame and the return of business travel. Should companies really encourage employees to get on planes given the climate crisis?. This Financial Times podcast looks at the new practice of blending business travel with leisure time – or bleisure as some call it – and why your employer may even be booking your vacation.
Business travelers are making up for lost time. Data from four TMCs show that two years after Covid-19 pushed aviation to the brink, premium-class cabins are filling up again.
TMCs will face pressure to consolidate. Corporate travel companies must consolidate to make the technology investments required to prosper, says Amex GBTA.
Boutique hotels have been seeing a surge in development over the last few years, catering especially to younger business travelers looking for a more energizing place to stay.
Hilton: Business travel will fully recover ‘by the end of the year’. Business, group travelers claim larger share of Hilton's guest mix. The company expects business-transient demand to be back to 2019 levels by year end, and RevPAR for group business bookings should achieve 90% of 2019 levels by the end of the year.
Sabre sees corporate travel recovery pick up pace. Domestic corporate travel recovered to 66 percent of 2019 levels during Q1. Sabre executives reported "accelerating" corporate travel demand in the first quarter as total net air bookings surpassed 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels.
Corporate travel agency labor shortage threatens recovery. Reduced internal travel teams now the number one gripe for buyers as business travel returns. Business trips are roaring back, but for how long depends on the breaking points of travel managers and agency advisors making them possible in the first place.
Five places business travel has changed post-pandemic. Work-related trips are bouncing back in a big way in 2022. Here are five countries that are seeing impressive rebounds across different international regions, based on the number of international business travel bookings.
Travel managers foresee less travel long-term but more responsibilities. Having fewer TMC resources is travel managers’ biggest challenge currently. Travel buyers have a heavy ‘to-do’ list for the rest of 2022 with sustainability, supplier collaboration, traveler management and financial value all in pole position.
Demystifying blockchain in corporate travel. Why is the industry still so nervous about blockchain and decentralized travel marketplaces?. Wouldn’t it be great if buyers and suppliers could deal directly with each other, without the layers of intermediaries each taking their fee and controlling the data?
Amex GBT adds gender-neutral options in Neo. The booking tool's gender selection field now includes "non-binary" as an option alongside "female" and "male" for traveler profiles.
Global business travel recovery sees double-digit surge since February. Corporate travel policies are undergoing a revamp. Latest GBTA Business Travel Recovery Poll reveals more international travel resumes and travel bookings, spending and willingness rises, alongside policy, inflation and sustainability factors.
Business travel rebooted. How Covid-19 transformed business travel management forever. The business travel industry is finding its feet and adapting to a new environment in which the purpose of every trip is closely scrutinized and where opinion is firmly divided on when – and even if – 2019 business travel volumes will ever return.
Yatra.com launches meta search tool for corporate travel. India’s leading corporate travel services provider announced the launch of a meta search tool on their corporate travel booking platform.
Reshaping the landscape: Corporate travel in 2022 and beyond. Corporate travel recovery has not matched travel manager's 2021 expectations. As health concerns and travel restrictions abate, corporate travel is making a steady, but slow, return; recovery to 2019 levels is still likely at least a couple of years away.
Stunted business travel hits hospitality industry hard. Demand levels are not expected to fully recover until 2024. A new report by the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Kalibri Labs indicates persistently paltry business travel in the U.S. will keep the hotel industry stuck below pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
Persistent leisure-corporate gap. New York hotels are seeing continued healthy leisure demand, and while corporate demand is growing, it remains in the early stages of recovery.
Hotels offer flexibility, loyalty points to retain corporate clients. The pandemic has disrupted business travel, and with it one of the mainstays of hotels: corporate negotiated rates.
Business travel's pre-pandemic returns are delayed. Flexible work arrangements will have an ongoing impact on business travel. One-quarter of companies say that working from home will lead to more travel to headquarters, but is likely to result in less travel overall, according to a new Deloitte report.
Business travel’s return depends on who you ask. If you ask business travelers, they are not optimistic. The cost savings realized by companies in 2020, and the success of using video technology as a substitute for face-to-face meetings are significant reasons for this lack of optimism.
Hotel bookings on course for quicker recovery in 2022. HotelHub, which provides technology for TMCs, said that global hotel transactions reached 87 per cent of 2019 volumes in March.
March blew the doors off of business travel. Spend in hotel accommodations increased 138% from January to March 2022. With Omicron cases decreasing and travel restrictions dropping, spending for U.S. business travel has seen a huge growth in the past two months, according to the latest TripActions data.
American Express GBT confident ‘strong momentum’ will continue. Transactions have increased by 200 per cent since mid-January. The travel management company said that the volume of bookings had reached 61 per cent of 2019 levels for the week ending on 2 April.
Cvent launches new vendor marketplace. Offers users a curated network of trusted vendors to support in-person, virtual and hybrid event requirements.
Travelers expect more customer meetings. Many business travelers expect to make more trips to meet with customers, suppliers and other external stakeholders than they did pre-pandemic.
UK business travel recovery is underway. The volume is back to 62.93% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels, according to research for the Business Travel Association.
Companies grapple with policies, procedures for travel return. Many companies begin to lift the pre-trip requirements implemented during the pandemic. Pre-trip approvals, vaccination requirements, permissive booking policies... what will stay and what will go as business travel returns to business as usual?
As hotel rates recover, amenities might lag. Surging leisure demand combined with labor shortages are creating a uniquely challenging rate environment for corporates.
Five trends that will define group travel in 2022. The size, spend, duration, and mix of groups looks different now compared to three years ago, according to an Amadeus report.
Sonder taps into traditional hotel biz. The company is expanding its sales team to do things the brands do - offer corporations negotiated rates and attract groups.
Business travel set to take longer to ‘stabilize’ post-Covid. Employers still working out what can be done remotely and what requires face-to-face interaction. According to a new report, 77 per cent of organizations have adopted a hybrid working approach with employees splitting their time at the office and working from home.
City travel poised for comeback as virus drops. Most of the major urban markets still struggling, but the trend is turning positive. As the pandemic wanes, some cities and city hotels are reporting significant improvement in occupancy, indicating that a comeback could be in the cards this year for urban destinations.
FCM sees strong recovery for Asia. The company has exceeded the 50% trading mark of pre-COVID turnover with the recent reopening of borders in several key Asia markets.
Hyatt introduces Work From Hyatt: Offsite. A corporate retreat concept created for the growing demand from businesses to connect with colleagues in person, after two years of virtual collaboration.
The rise of the “Corporate Nomad”. While still a small segment of the workforce, it might grow quickly in the coming years, particularly for individuals in their early 30s to 50s.
Sabre: Corporate bookings reach two-year high. International and corporate bookings in March are expected to be at the highest level since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trend: On-the-fly meetings. When group business starts to increase it will be much more short-term in nature, giving hotels significant pricing power.
Business travel compliance in Europe. Recent developments in Europe as business travel compliance continues to evolve. Businesses face unique challenges when navigating the patchwork of national legal frameworks in Europe while balancing the changing mobility landscape and novel ways of working.
Amadeus partners with Microsoft for business travel. New Cytric integration with Microsoft 365 takes a first step in the companies’ vision to provide an immersive and collaborative travel and expense experience.
As corporate customers are starting to travel, TMCs need to be ready because the corporate customer of 2019 is not the same in 2022 – they need and want more support.
Business travel to provide post-pandemic boost. In-person business travel and meetings have undeniable advantages over virtual options.
UK: Covid still blocking business travel. New research from Business Travel Show Europe has revealed that Covid is continuing to play havoc with business travel planning.
Is downtown dead? Based on foot traffic, downtown areas across the country are returning to pre-pandemic levels of activity in 2022. The return of more office workers is the missing piece.
Pent-up demand for business travel. CWT has observed a significant increase in travel to and from several countries that have recently relaxed testing and quarantine requirements.
Corporate travelers see culture cost in virtual. Increased virtual work negatively impacts workplace productivity, culture. New survey finds that sentiment around business travel is shifting, with 77% of business travelers agreeing that it is more important than ever to bring back business travel.
Hotels look to attract group demand back. Leisure alone cannot bring the industry back to pre-pandemic levels. Though rumors of group demand death have been wildly exaggerated, it will take time, effort, savvy operations and an "all hands-on deck" approach to drive full-service hotel recovery.
UK: Big drop in business travel. The second week of March saw the biggest drop in domestic and international business travel since the start of 2022, latest BTA data reveals.
Delta's business travel is 60 percent back. Company believes that US economy over the next year or two is going to be meaningfully larger than it was in 2019.
Amex: Remote workers to create new demand for business travel. There will be a lot more internal travel where colleagues will come into the headquarters to be with their team for a few days.
As U.S. business travel gets busy in 2022, expect higher costs. Prices are likely to rise and shape into a sellers market. Second-tier cities have shown faster and more robust hotel rate recovery than most major gateways, thanks to stronger domestic travel trends compared with international.
How to ease back into traveling for work. Transitioning back into business travel after the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t as simple as buying a plane ticket.
Business travel mindset shifts from ‘automated’ to ‘intentional’. Business travel is the center of the new company culture. A new Amex GBT white paper suggests that corporate leaders should adopt a chief journey officer in what they believe to be a ‘new era of work and travel’.
Will working from home be a boon for business travel? Many in the industry think the continued trend of working from home could actually be a boost for hotel and travel bottom lines.
Microsoft ups carbon free travel. The company will raise an internal carbon fee on business travel, to better support the purchase of sustainable aviation fuel.
Key indicators point to slower improvement in business travel. Downtown hotel recovery could be on hold longer than expected. If recent travel screening counts and escalating levels of office sublet space in downtown locations are any indication, a full recovery for business hotels may still be a few quarters away.
The wider trends driving business travel recovery. There is a new type of business travel, team travel. Some experts believe that next year will see bigger numbers in business travelers than 2019 because of the new types of business travel created by remote work conditions.
US: Meetings volume increases 48.1 percent in February. If the year continues at this pace, volume levels will bring the industry closer to baseline 2019 numbers, says Knowland.
Corporate travel: Shift to offline hotel bookings expected. With the latest updates to PSD2, corporate travelers will likely move away from online booking tools to contacting their TMC.
Cvent sees demand grow for hybrid events. The event management platform recorded a 25% rise in revenue during the final three months of 2021, compared with the same quarter in 2020.
Amex GBT sees corporate travel recovery accelerating. Transaction recovery in the last week of February 2022 reached 51% of 2019 levels. American Express Global Business Travel reported a net loss of $474 million for 2021, besting the $619 million loss reported for 2020, as transaction volume began to recover.
More travel buyers focusing on needs of lone female travelers. An increasing number of organizations are now including special considerations for solo female business travelers within their programs.
Hotels roll out welcome mat to ‘super commuters’. New York City hotels are trying a new and different marketing ploy. As remote work shifts to hybrid models, employees who moved to the suburbs or beyond are becoming weekly fixtures at city hotels on those days when they must make an appearance at the office.
Hotel executives foresee group travel boom in 2022. US hoteliers believe group demand will see a robust comeback this year. While leisure demand has been the darling of the hotel recovery, hotel executives believe we are in the very early stages of a robust comeback for group and events.
Business travel recovery keeps gaining traction. Concern from Omicron begins to wane and global travel restrictions loosen. The latest GBTA poll reveals growing optimism, more employee travel allowed, and restrictions lifting while travel bookings show a slow but steady return.
Accor: 20% decline in international business travel "could probably last forever". Focus will have to change for properties once specialized in serving international business travelers. The company set sights on domestic business travel and meetings - as well as leisure - to fill the gap expected to be left by terminally reduced international business travel.
What’s next for post-pandemic corporate travel management. How will the pandemic and business travel recovery change corporate travel programs going forward?. Business travel is starting to come back but, according to a new study, it might not be business–as–usual post-pandemic for corporate travel managers, programs and policies.
Wyndham to unveil first economy-tier extended-stay brand this spring. The chain will target blue-collar business travelers with a new economy extended-stay brand.
The “Great Reconnection”. Business leaders are calling for in-person staff retreats. It's likely that traveling for business to meet with clients won’t recover for a while but traveling for staff retreats may surge to higher levels than ever.
Cendyn: Hotelier’s guide to navigating group sales. Even if pre-COVID levels are not in sight right away, the increase in interest means hotels need to adapt once again to the return of group business.
Hyatt says business event bookings surpass pre-Covid levels. Bookings for group meetings in January had been 14 per cent above the same point in 2019.
Marriott sees slow but improving corporate travel performance. Short booking windows from seven to 30 days for groups continued to bedevil hoteliers in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Trip.com adopts the hybrid office. Scores of tech companies around the world have switched to remote work or some sort of hybrid model during the past two COVID-hit years.
Corporate travel rebounds, Sabre reports. Full recovery remains several years down the road. Bookings are skewing about 65 percent to 70 percent leisure compared with corporate, in contrast to what traditionally has been a 50-50 balance.
Business travel bookings taking off. The highest numbers of domestic and international business travel bookings were recorded in the first week of February since May 2020.
CWT sets priorities for $100M platform investment. Sustainable travel initiatives, improving connectivity and increasing content are top list of goals.
Business travel’s difficult relationship with carbon emissions. Technology gains are getting eaten up by people flying more. Aviation’s at a real crunch point because it doesn't know how to solve this problem. There’s no getting around the need to be more careful about when we fly and when we don't.
Greater certainty despite Omicron. Most respondents to Meeting Professionals International’s quarterly survey are now more optimistic about live attendance in 2022.
US: Finance managers expect corporate travel boom for 2022. Majority says employees being unable to travel has caused a revenue loss at their company. Most finance manager and business travelers alike expect a "boom" in business travel by the end of this year, according to a recent survey commissioned by SAP Concur.
Egencia launches AI based travel approval tool. The new tool will simplify and reduce the time it takes for companies to set up travel approval workflows on Egencia’s platform.
Marriott bullish about group business outlook. Many thought individual business travelers would come back before groups and meetings, but meetings have come back quicker.
Meetings will define future of business travel. When you really examine “why” people are traveling, the lion’s share of business travel has to do with meetings.
Leisure demand will mean less supply for business travelers. With leisure travel plowing full steam ahead, suppliers are beginning to envision a world where the value of the business traveler has changed.
Remote work will transform travel manager role. They may find themselves dealing with a much larger traveling population than in the past, which will bring its own management challenges.
AHLA: Business travel share down sharply. Business travelers made up 52.5% of U.S. lodging industry room revenue in 2019, and is projected to represent just 43.6% in 2022.
AmEx: Customers are going everywhere except the office. Spending by AmEx’s large and global corporate customers currently remain just a third of what it was before the pandemic.
UK: Signs point to increased demand for group bookings. Hotels starting to field inquiries for events and meetings, incentives, conventions and expositions business.
GBTA: Uncertainty a huge wet blanket on business travel. Despite Omicron, there are positive signs, and industry professionals continue to be optimistic for the long-term outlook.
Business travel pulse is growing stronger. Despite the omicron setback for airlines, the longer-term prospects are looking bright. Corporate giants with storied reputations and long-standing customer relationships are less likely to lose out on opportunities by keeping workers at home a little longer.
Business travel recovering as leisure lines blur. American Airlines' bookings are "recovering quickly" after the Covid-19 omicron variant triggered a drop-off in December.
New world of work to alter traveler priorities. As companies evolve remote work policies, employees are looking to make greater use of their vacation time, and combine work and play.
Most German companies only allowing ‘exceptional’ business travel. Three quarters of German travel buyers are currently allowing their employees only to travel for business-critical meetings.
London City Airport 'very optimistic.' With the highest proportion of business flights of all UK airports, the airport
expects recovery ‘close to pre-pandemic levels’ this year.
Business travel communication preferences in a fast-changing world. Keeping connected with business travelers has taken on renewed urgency for companies and their travel managers.
What Delta Air Lines predicts for business travel. Spring and summer will see robust demand for business travel. It’s wait-and-see right now, but 80% of corporate travel survey respondents thought they would travel the same or more in the first quarter than they did in fourth quarter.
HSMAI: How to improve communication between hotel and meeting planning professionals. Eight ways to maximize the relationship with your key partners in planning.
BCD: Business travel trends for 2022. The value of business travel is a moving target. Coming out of a sustained period with little or no travel, companies are reviewing the value of sending employees on business trips.
New generation of buyers entering the marketplace. Hotels need to get ready for a new way of doing business. The new generation of group accommodation buyers are younger, tech savvy and expect on-demand answers, so hoteliers need to align their sales strategy to match the way they conduct business.
Why corporate travel is betting on NDC. Amadeus explains why 2022 could see significant steps forward for the concept of New distribution capability (NDC).
TravelPerk becomes Spain’s latest unicorn with a €1.1 billion valuation. Founded in 2015, the company is a pioneering a next-generation all-in-one business travel platform.
Slow return of large, citywide events. CES in Las Vegas has less than a quarter of attendees seen in 2019. Many hoteliers still hoping that 2022 will see a more broad-based return of demand, but the next six month will see some similar disruptions for large events, according to STR.
Softening demand for hybrid events. Meeting planners are returning to live-only events more quickly than expected, with majority “increasingly inclined” to meet in person in 2022.
Hotel marketers expect moderate business travel recovery. Majority of bookings to come through direct channels in 2022. While leisure travel has been the lone saving grace for the hotel industry since the onset of the pandemic, hotel sales and marketing experts believe the business mix could grow more diversified in 2022.
How Best Western Plus wants to attract more corporate travelers. A McKinsey & Co. report found an opportunity for the brand to win more midweek corporate business.
U.S. air travel down exclusively among employed adults. Major corporate cutbacks on employee travel account for the decline. Fewer Americans traveled by air in 2021 than in any year in Gallup records between 2003 and 2015, largely because of reduced travel by employed adults.
Hotels marketing to a new version of business traveler. Combining remote work with vacations could provide lifeline to business travel. While 'work-cation' and 'collaboration travel' will not replace traditional business travel, it is one of many new opportunities as the world adjusts to new ways of doing business.
Will Omicron stall business travel recovery?. The new variant disrupts business travel in a number of ways. In-person meetings and events have already taken a major hit from Omicron, and could further trickle down to transient business travel.
What’s important to corporate clients in 2022. Insights from IHG Hotels & Reports European advisory board. An industry-wide solution to the annualized RFP process as well as the importance of real-time data exchange perceived as an elusive wish for corporates and a pain point for many.