Business travel is returning, according to the October 2022 Business Travel Recovery Poll by the Global Business Travel Association.
Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA, said: “We continue to see progress as business travel makes its way back to being a $1.4 trillion global industry, pre-pandemic. It is also important to understand the context of global business travel’s recovery. Asia is still opening its borders, international business travel in general started picking up only earlier this year across the globe, and the U.S. has only permitted unrestricted travel since June.
“Even as this latest poll shows economic considerations have eclipsed Covid-19 concerns, the industry is showing positive indicators and sentiment for 2023, a strong sign as business travel continues to come back over time."
On average, travel managers estimated their company’s domestic business travel volume was back to 63% and international business travel is back to 50% of their 2019 pre-pandemic levels. In addition, 26% of respondents estimated their international business travel volume has recovered to more than 70% of their company’s pre-pandemic levels.
When asked to choose among factors that were more likely to limit business travel next year, 80% of travel suppliers said economic conditions while only 4% cited Covid-19.
However, 75% of travel buyers surveyed said their company had no immediate plans to limit business travel because of economic concerns. One-third (30%) said their company was unlikely to limit business travel, while 45% said they are taking a wait-and-see approach but were not seriously considering limiting business travel at this point due to economic concerns.