Business Travel continues to recover,
with further growth expected in 2023 according to new GBTA Poll

The Business Travel industry continues to improve with further gains expected in 2023 according to latest GBTA survey of over 595 industry experts.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) released the results from there latest Business Travel Recovery Poll last week produced great insights and interesting results which would indicate that the industry will make further inroads towards recovering to pre pandemic booking levels. The survey was completed by almost 600 business travel buyers, suppliers, and other stakeholders around the world.  

“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,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO, GBTA. “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,” she said. 

Below are some of the key takeaways from the GBTA poll: 

• On average, travel managers estimate their company’s domestic business travel volume has returned to around to 63% and international business travel is back to 50% of their 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
• However, 75% of travel buyers surveyed say their company had no immediate plans to limit business travel because of economic concerns. One-third (30%) say their company is unlikely to limit business travel, while 45% say they are taking a wait-and-see approach but are not seriously considering limiting business travel at this point due to economic concerns.
• Over 78% of travel managers expect the number of business trips taken by employees at their company to increase or grow exponentially in 2023 versus 2022.
• Among travel suppliers, 85% expect the number of bookings by corporate clients to be higher or much higher in 2023. Additionally, 80% of suppliers expect travel spend by corporate clients to be higher or much higher in 2023 year over year.
• Over 65% of travel managers are optimistic that their company will conduct more internal travel and external travel. Internal travel was defined as meetings with colleagues or working at other company office locations, while external travel examples are trips for sales meetings and conference travel.

As a travel management company, the results from this survey are extremely encouraging, they certainly support what we are hearing from our clients, and we hope that this growth continues into the start of 2023 and beyond.

Is it time to review your travel strategy for 2023? Contact us to discuss your future travel plans on 01892673422 or enquire here.