Biz travel optimism noted

A STUDY conducted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) has found that 54% of respondents are considering resuming all business travel in the “near future”, but don’t yet have any definitive plans in place.

The same study also suggested that roughly one in seven businesses have mapped out a business travel plan for trips taking place soon, while 14% said they had no plans to resume any form of travel in the near future.

The most likely international destinations for travel for businesses were Canada and the United States, scoring 24% and 28% respectively with organisations who plan to travel overseas soon.

GBTA Chief Executive Officer Scott Solombrino said the figures demonstrated that despite its members needing a level of safety assurance across aspects like flights and hotel stays, the responses clearly showed the preliminary signs of optimism for the corporate travel space.

“People aren’t going to travel until they feel safe... but as restrictions across the globe begin to lift, small green shoots of optimism are sprouting in the industry with more than half (54%) of companies considering resuming all travel in the near future,” he said.

“That is a positive, albeit small, sign that we are finally headed in the right direction.”

Further key findings of the survey showed that the majority of confidence was being expressed for domestic travel, 78% of those questioned revealing their intention to travel soon, while a lower, but still significant, 52% were willing to travel overseas on business soon.

With regard to hotel stays, business travellers listed an increase in cleaning protocols as their primary concern (80%), with 55% requiring hotel staff to wear a face mask, and 44% wanting to see additional communication of the property’s sanitation practices.