The growth in the use of sharing economy services by UK business travellers is being driven by millennials, according to a new study from the GBTA and American Express Global Business Travel.
Research conducted for the GBTA Global Business Traveler Sentiment Index asked whether business travellers would increase their use of sharing economy services over the next three months. The results are shown below.
The study showed that 51% of UK company travel policies allow the use of ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft.
More than a quarter of millennials (28%) said they expected to increase their usage of rideshare services, against 11% overall. In the over 55 age demographic, none expected to increase their usage.
Home-sharing services such as Airbnb and HomeAway are permitted by 28% of company travel policies. The survey found that 22% of millennials expected to increase their usage of these in the next three months compared with 1% of over 55s and 9% across all age ranges.
More than half of millennials responding to the survey (53%) felt that social networking sites help them meeting up with colleagues and business contacts when travelling. This compares with 15% of those over 55 and 35% overall.
Fabienne Cauli, vice president, global client group, EMEA & JAPA, American Express Global Commercial Payments, said: "This Index provides a benchmark of business travellers' changing priorities and expectations — and it's fascinating to see how this is evolving, thanks, in part, to generational change in the workplace. Younger travellers show clear appetite for using sharing economy services, and have high expectations when it comes to connectivity. These issues are only going to become more prominent in the years ahead, as millennials represent an ever-growing proportion of the workforce."
The GBTA Global Business Traveler Sentiment Index was conducted among a sample of 3,500 business travellers in eight markets: Australia, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the UK, 405 UK business travellers were surveyed.