Business travel set for late recovery

The Global Business Travel Association says business travel will regain its 2019 level of $1.43 trillion in mid-2026 – 18 months later than predicted previously.

It says inflation, supply chain problems and ongoing Covid lockdowns in China are all delaying a full recovery in business travel to its pre-pandemic level. Given what happened during the Covid lockdown period, we’re surprised that business travel will ever go back to what it was.

During that awful time, companies discovered that many of their people could work remotely – and could do so without any major impact on productivity.

On the contrary, reduction in commuting time and costs meant people could get more done at home. Companies also discovered that much business done on expensive foreign or local trips could be done just as effectively using the internet.

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Some also came to the conclusion that many trips are more about the travel than the business. Savings made in this way will have kept some organisations from bankruptcy and will have changed, radically, the way some companies have been doing business.

Consumers may well have benefitted, from lower prices, too, through these company savings. That is something which the business travel bodies perhaps do not want to hear.