Two new travel buyer surveys share the sentiment that budget and the number of trips will increase or remain the same this year despite a priority to cut costs.
Around half of the 983 buyers surveyed by AirPlus and 178 buyers by the Business Travel Show expect the number of trips they manage to remain the same and an average 35% expect an increase in travel.
The AirPlus study says it is the increase in business travel that is causing company costs to rise and not higher prices. Still, buyers in the BTS study put 'rising airfares' as the third top issue they face in 2017 and 'price variations between booking channels' at sixth.
Air and hotel fares are generally predicted to rise, as outlined in several forecasts by the likes of GBTA, PwC and Carlson Wagonlit Travel, but prices can change quickly if an attack takes place and the demand for travel to a destination drops.
Supplier initiatives and new products are also changing costs; in the BTS survey 17% of buyers said they had seen price increases as a direct result of Lufthansa's DCC and Ole Mortensen's Expert piece this week shares how TMC costs have and could change.
Where are the savings? If buyers pay attention to that sixth issue in the BTS survey they could find an answer there. It's interesting that while all the forecasts from business travel bodies predict an increase in air fares, Expedia's analysis of ARC data found continued decreases in recent years. With new rebooking technology and/or more travellers adding leisure time onto trips there could be opportunities to bring costs down by flying in off-peak times.
A few of our Experts think the only way to decrease travel spend is to reduce the amount of travel and improve virtual meetings technology. There have been advances in the technology but it might take time to switch habits.