The Covid pandemic means that regular business travellers
are looking for more contactless payment options, a new report has found.
The new survey, commissioned by Amadeus, found
that 79 per cent of respondents are happy to pay with a mobile
wallet on-trip.
Travellers are also keen to streamline the expense claims
process.
One in seven business
travellers has to wait longer than six weeks to be reimbursed for expenses incurred
on business trips, the study found.
Frequent travellers believe
they are US$470 out of pocket annually on
average due to lost receipts. More than a third (38 per cent) said they had considered
not taking a business trip due to delayed reimbursement.
The
study also found that business travellers spend 2.3 hours on average filing
expense claims for each trip, with many relying on manual methods to do so.
Some 81 per cent would prefer on-trip expenses to
be paid directly from the company’s bank account.
Rudy Daniello, executive
vice president corporations, Amadeus said: “New innovations in mobile
payment and expense are coming online that allow travellers to
pay contactlessly using their mobile, directly from the
company bank account. This removes the need to touch payment
terminals or handle paper receipts whilst expense reporting is
automated in the background.”
The research was conducted
during February 2021 with 1,400 people from France, Germany, India, Japan,
Spain, USA and the UK who had travelled at least three times for business in
2019.