Around 40 per cent of corporate travel managers are expecting their budgets to rise during 2025, according to a new survey by Business Travel Show Europe.
The poll of 163 corporate travel and procurement specialists – 85 per cent of whom are based in the UK or Europe – found that 75 per cent were expecting their budgets to increase this year (38.5 per cent) or stay on a par with 2024 (36.5 per cent). Only around 18 per cent of respondents expected a year-on-year decrease in travel budgets.
The majority (60 per cent) of buyers said their organisation’s business travel activity had already returned to pre-Covid volumes by the end of 2024. Another 10 per cent are expecting this to happen in 2025 and 13 per cent think it may eventually return to 2019 volumes but it’s unlikely to be achieved in 2025.
Only 11.6 per cent of respondents said their business travel was unlikely to return to 2019 levels. The main reason for this was a pressure to cut costs (50 per cent), followed by their organisation’s attempts to become more sustainable and reduce carbon emissions (15 per cent).
BTN Group executive vice president Louis Magliaro said: “For almost four in 10 corporate travel budgets to rise this year given the pressure travel managers are under to cut costs is really positive news and in line with the expected increase in trip volumes that we are hearing about.
“We fully expect the rise in costs that we witnessed last year will stabilise throughout 2025, taking more heat off travel managers and allowing them to focus on travellers and ROI (return on investment).
“It will be critical to work with the right TMCs, suppliers and technology suites to squeeze every bit of value they can from their budgets, while being mindful of the pressures to be more sustainable and their obligations for traveller safety, compliance and reporting.”
Business Travel Show Europe returns to ExCeL in London from 25-26 June. Before then, the inaugural Business Travel Show APAC takes place in Singapore on 16-17 April and later in the year Business Travel Show America will make its debut in New York on 15-16 October.