The number of travel managers who consider their organisations' employees willing to travel for business appears to have plateaued since May, according to a new survey by the Global Business Travel Association. Suppliers' optimism about a business travel recovery also appears to have leveled off, according to the survey, even as month-over-month travel volumes increase.
About 77 per cent of the 309 member travel buyers and procurement managers surveyed between 6 and 13 July by GBTA indicated that they considered their travellers "very willing" or "willing" to travel for business, the same share as indicated in June, and two percentage points higher than May's survey. About 24 per cent of respondents in July indicated their travellers were "very willing," up from 19 percent in June, but overall willingness held steady.
Meanwhile, about 57 per cent of 158 member travel suppliers indicated they were "optimistic" or "very optimistic" about "the financial prospects of companies in the business travel sector," up from 54 per cent in June, even as 70 per cent of the suppliers in July said that their travel bookings had increased week over week.
Meanwhile, 81 per cent of all buyers and suppliers surveyed in July by GBTA indicated they were fully vaccinated against Covid-19, and another 8 per cent indicated they were partially vaccinated. That's a higher percentage than the public at large in the United States, where 59.4 per cent of adults are fully vaccinated, and the UK where 68 per cent are fully vaccinated. In the GBTA poll, 5 per cent of respondents said that they were not vaccinated, and another 5 per cent declined to answer.