Buyers are seeing healthier budgets for 2022 than they did six months ago, but travel levels are still unlikely to return to pre-Covid levels for at least two years for most organisations.
The latest research for Business Travel Show Europe, which takes place on 29-30 June at ExCeL London, shows how things have changed since the previous survey in September 2021.
Only eight per cent of buyers expect their business travel volumes to reach 2019 levels this year, while 14 per cent are predicting that this happens within two years. The majority (52 per cent) believe there will only be a 100 per cent return to pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2024.
Nearly half of buyers (48 per cent) said they expected their 2022 travel volumes to only reach up to 59 per cent of pre-Covid activity.
The poll of 139 travel buyers based around the world also found that 72 per cent were still working with lower budgets in 2022 than before the pandemic. Although this was an improvement on the 86 per cent who were seeing reduced budgets in September 2021.
The number of buyers seeing increased or similar budgets added up to 28 per cent – an increase from a figure of 14 per cent in September.
Covid continues to be the largest contributing factor to lower volumes of business trips with travel restrictions being blamed by 34 per cent of buyers – up from 24 per cent in September. The other major factors were pressure to reduce cost (17 per cent) and duty-of-care induced bans (15 per cent).
Louis Magliaro, executive vice president of BTN Group, which organises the Business Travel Show, said: “Six months is a long time in business travel and so much has changed since we last polled our buyers in September 2021.
“We have survived another Covid variant and welcomed the news that many countries are now reducing – or eliminating entirely – the robust restrictions that have made travel impossible at worst, and painstakingly complex at best, over the past two years.
“I genuinely believe we can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and these survey results also show an increase in optimism and confidence among our buyers.”
Scott Davies, CEO of ITM (Institute of Travel Management), said the results of the BTS survey “echo” those in ITM’s own research with its buyer members.
“Even though volumes and budgets are still suppressed, almost all of ITM’s buyer members are still having to manage an increased workload,” added Davies.
“While business travel ground to a virtual halt two years ago, the corporate travel buyer’s ‘to do’ list certainly did not; in fact, it increased exponentially.
“Over the last two years, almost all of our buyer members assumed unprecedentedly complex additional responsibilities: from disruption management, traveller guidance on Covid travel restrictions, changes to EU travel rules and extensive new levels of reporting, to managing the return to travel that meets duty of care and sustainability goals.”
Business Travel Show Europe, which runs alongside The Meetings Show and TravelTech Show, is now open for online registration.