Business travel will change forever
Business trips that take long flights and cost a lot of money may be over for good.
According to the report "Business, but Not as Usual," business travel will never be the same again because of tighter company budgets and new ways to work virtually.
According to the study, business travellers are also getting younger and more likely to fly in economy class. About half of them earn less than $50,000 a year.
The old ideas about high-spending travellers who pay a lot for first-class tickets are no longer true, says the study.
The study says that a different business travel model is slowly but surely taking hold, making it the "new normal" for the industry.
Businesses are going on fewer trips.
According to Morning Consult, work travel in the United States stayed the same last year while leisure travel grew around the world.
It surveyed about 4,400 Americans and found that both domestic and foreign business trips would only go up by 1% in 2022.
The report says that fewer people travel for work than they did before the pandemic, and those who do travel do so less often.
Nearly a third of the people who answered the survey said that their companies had changed their business travel rules. The most common changes were making business trips less frequent (60%) or sending fewer employees on trips (56%). More than half (54%) said that companies are also paying more attention to trip costs.
According to a corporate travel study released by Deloitte this month, one in seven companies surveyed in the U.S. and one in five in Europe think that efforts to be more environmentally friendly will lead to less corporate travel in 2023.
The report is based on a survey of 334 people in charge of travel budgets or who handle travel budgets. It says that one in three American companies and about 40 per cent of European companies said they needed to cut employee travel costs by more than 20 per cent to meet climate goals for 2030.
The report, called "Navigating toward a new normal," says that worries about the environment will likely affect business travel gains for many years to come.
Lindsey Roeschke, a travel and hospitality analyst at Morning Consult, said that at least half of the French, British, and German business travellers who took regular work trips before the pandemic say they will never do so again. "Other places, like India, China, and Brazil, have more promise, though."
According to a study from Morning Consult in February, most workers in the United States say they are happy with their current travel schedules.
Overall, 64% of American adults said they travel the "right amount" for work, while 29% said they wish they could do more and 7% said they wish they could do less, the report said.
Spending is going up, but trips are staying the same.
According to a study by Deloitte, the number of trips isn't going up much, but the amount companies spend on business travel is going up quickly.
It said that corporate travel spending in the U.S. and Europe nearly doubled last year and is on track to reach levels from before the pandemic by the end of 2024 or the beginning of 2025.
Even though this may look like a full recovery, the study says that businesses have to spend more because of rising prices and higher travel costs.
"Higher airfares and room rates are the main reason why costs are going up, and they are also the main reason why people aren't taking as many trips," it said.
The report says that higher costs are also caused by flexible bookings and the fact that workers want to go on business trips that are high-end.
According to Deloitte, companies say they save money by staying in cheaper hotels (59%), getting cheaper flights (56%) and limiting the number of times they travel (45%).
The study said that nearly 70% of them are strategically weighing the need for trips, weighing things like costs and carbon emissions against things like keeping employees and making money.
Some good things about work travel
But the reports show that there are a few bright spots for those who are happy about the strong return of business travel.
Deloitte predicts that spending on international business trips will go up in 2023. In Europe, this will be mostly for client work, and in the U.S., people will go to conferences to meet up with coworkers from around the world.
Morning Consult found that nearly two-thirds of business travellers said they plan to go to a meeting or seminar this year as well.
Its study says that "bleisure" travel, which is a mix of business and pleasure travel, is also on the rise. This is due to the flexible work arrangements that started during the pandemic.
The report says that employees usually pay more for blended trips, but many find that the "investment is worth it" because they can travel more often and for longer amounts of time.