Business Travel continues to deteriorate during pandemic

It has been nearly a year and a half since the companies are surviving without the need for business travel. Mainly it is due to the coronavirus pandemic and saving on the excess funds that are spent on travel and other related expenditure for the companies struggling during the phase. The companies are continuing to avoid business travel to cut costs and reduce carbon emissions.

Looking at the backdrop, business travel continues to remain a major portion of the global economy. During the pre-pandemic phase, trillions of dollars were spent on air tickets, hotel reservations and the agencies who make the arrangements. As for now the corporate trend is slowly returning, but it is not expected to go above 30 percent by the end of 2021. Half of the companies who were earlier active in business travel have now said that they will be adjusting their travel strategies and be more sustainable. Many of them also said that they would reduce the frequency of business travel to save money.

There was a time when the company used to send nearly eight people to finalize a deal, but now they will be sending just two while the others would be on Zoom. The business travellers make up to just ten percent of the airline passengers across some of the big airlines. But the fact is that they make up for 55 to 75 percent of their revenue as they are mostly the ones who spend on the last minute bookings or the business/executive class bookings.

However, if the set-back to the business travel continues then it would end up to a major set-back to the airlines and they would be forced to slash prices and reduce its routes. Experts have opined that some parts of the business travel would manage to bounce back. Conferences and trade shows would be back at some point as everything cannot always be done on Zoom.

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