Hybrid work fuels travel

BUSINESS travel is set to boom thanks to hybrid working arrangements and skill shortages, according to predictions made by Corporate Traveller’s Global Managing Director, Tom Walley.

Flight Centre’s SME travel provider reported a 988% increase in international flight bookings, while domestic flights numbers rose by 20% between 01 Feb and 31 May this year.

Walley identified a number of emerging trends, including working holidays, where executives work remotely in one or more holiday locations for several weeks or months, sometimes taking their families with them.

‘Bleisure’, where holidays are added onto the end of work trips, was another trend detected among Corporate Traveller customers, while it was also found that work-from-home employees were making more frequent trips to more cities for meetings with stakeholders.

Walley believes these trends, if embraced by businesses, could lead to an early full recovery for the business travel sector - and will also help companies to attract and retain staff.

“Travel remains a sought-after perk for many Australian workers and the possibility of combining leisure with work will be invaluable to them and improve their work-life balance.”

MEANWHILE, in response to the increasing number of people working remotely, Airbnb has partnered with 20 destinations around the world, including Queensland, as part of its Live and Work Anywhere initiative.

Airbnb will work closely with each organisation to create dedicated custom-built hubs for their destination, highlighting top local long-term stay listings as well as info on entry requirements and tax policies.

Along with the hubs, which are set to launch later this year, Airbnb will also work with destinations to release educational campaigns promoting responsible hosting and travelling as a remote worker.