Corporate travel is slowly bouncing back, but still has a long way to go to reach pre-COVID levels, according to a new study. In fact, it may be 2023 before it’s business as usual predicts the report.
According to the Flight Centre study, at present, 50% of organizations surveyed have begun travelling, however, 90% of them also said that the virus and its new attendant travel safety and hygiene requirements and protocols would result in fewer and shorter trips for employees, beginning within three months of governments re-opening borders and lifting restrictions such as quarantine.
At the same time, only 26% of businesses are planning to return to their pre-COVID-19 levels for domestic travel during 2021 with the remaining 74% expecting reduced domestic travel for the immediate year ahead. Pre-COVID the average number of business trips per traveller was six to eight per year; this number is likely to fall between three and four trips per person, per year until 2023.
Clients still have long-haul travel plans on hold indefinitely, as they assess the balance between need and safety.
The survey provides a snapshot of professionals currently travelling:
• Industries who continued to travel or recommenced travel the fastest were Mining & Wholesale, with roughly 40% of respondents from those businesses saying they continued traveling throughout the global shutdown; 80% have resumed travel at this point.
• Construction and food services follow closely behind with roughly 70% of respondents indicated that they’ve started travelling again.
• Across all industries, the first people to travel will be/have been sales, client management and project workforce who are focused on business growth, customer retention and the resumption of projects; 19% of respondents agree that the least likely to travel in the near future were administration and internal support staff as they are not client-facing.
“As travel restrictions are lifted and we all resume our lives in ‘the new normal,’ it’s important that we establish a path forward as a business and as an industry,” said Flight Centre Travel Group, Americas, president Charlene Leiss.
“Understanding how businesses are moving forward with their travel programs, what factors have the biggest impacts on their policies, how they’re adjusting their policies, and what is influencing their behaviour, will allow us to understand how to best serve them.”
To that end, Leiss and her team remain cognizant of the fact that triggers for business travel include travelling when safe (vaccine or virus eradicated), borders reopening, traveller confidence increasing, and the ability to appropriately track travellers. Moreover, the study revealed that the future of travel buying behavior will be influenced by:
• Airline, hotel, car/ground COVID-safety protocols (37% of respondents are reviewing their hotel suppliers to ensure they are COVID-safe and 25% of respondents rate Duty of Care their number one focus as travel resumes in their business)
• Shortened purchase window (the average purchase window for domestic travel has dropped from 7-10 days (pre-COVID) to 3-4 days post-COVID)
• Flexible fares
• Avoidance of overnight requirements
• Virtual meetings as a back-up
In addition to focusing on budgets, traveller confidence and safety procedures, businesses large and small are re-evaluating and revising their travel policies in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Among the new priorities are:
• Health & Hygiene
• Pre-trip approval
• Business Class travel approval
• Whether the business is essential
• Journey changes
• Adhering to COVID Conduct, and
• Using preferred and COVID safe suppliers
The third phase State of the Market Report was conducted by Flight Centre Group’s FCM Travel Solutions and the Corporate Traveller divisions with in-depth client interviews at 250 multi-national large-scale companies in 60 countries having taken place in August. The report follows on from the results of two State of the Market surveys released in May and June.
FCM Travel Solutions is one of the largest travel management companies in the world, and the flagship global business travel division of Flight Centre Travel Group. Affiliated Corporate Travellers has 45 teams based in Canada.