UK corporates are confident about the return of business travel, according to a new report released today by London North Eastern Railway (LNER) at the Business Travel Show Europe.
The Railway to Recovery report, which interviewed regular business travellers as well as some of the UK’s largest travel buyers, revealed that 89 per cent of office workers are confident that face-to-face meeting will become the norm by the end of the year.
When it comes the post-pandemic hybrid workforce, 46 per cent of people interviewed admitted that it was harder to maintain existing relationships and 37 per cent believe a lack of face-to-face meetings would negatively impact business going forward.
LNER managing director, David Horne, said: “Our conversations with businesses have found that face-to-face meetings are more important than ever as people continue to reconnect and recover after a challenging couple of years.
“Whilst virtual platforms have grown enormously, our research has found that people want to get back out and travel for business, and to reap the benefits of meeting clients and colleagues in person.”
LNER commissioned consultants Thread & Bloom and Nina & Pinta to conduct the research, which revealed that environmental and productivity benefits are major reasons why business travellers choose to travel by rail.
More than half (53 per cent) of people interviewed cited working on the move as one of the reasons they prefer rail and 49 per cent said it was down to environmental reasons.
Given the complexities of the current travel landscape, Horne said he hopes the findings will ‘inform and advance’ travel policies throughout the UK, particularly when it comes to the environmental benefits of rail travel.
The report follows the latest publication on rail usage from the Office for Rail and Road, which found that for the fourth consecutive quarter LNER has seen the most customers return to its services when compared with pre-pandemic levels than any other operator, with encouraging signs in both leisure and business travel.