Have you planned to resume business travel later this year?
Numbers from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) indicates that business travel spending is projected to grow 21% this year worldwide while a full recovery of the sector is expected in 2025.
The true global financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic began in Q2 2020, resulting in an expected 68% decline to US$738 billion during Apr 1 - Dec 31, 2020, according to GBTA's latest BTI Outlook report that covers business travel spending and growth in 75 countries across 48 industries.
Due to the relatively strong, pre-pandemic Q1 of 2020, global spending on business travel is expected to drop 52% to US$694 billion from US$1.43 trillion in 2019, the report states.
In addition, the loss in global work hours of the business travel industry last year was equivalent to 400 million full-time jobs in the hotel, airline, airport, ground transportation, restaurant and other service provider segments, compared to the end of 2019, the GBTA said.
Report highlights
- Spending on business travel is expected to rise to US$842 billion in 2021, but uncertainty around vaccination progress can impact the recovery.
- Business travel is expected to have shown losses in 2020 that were 10 times higher than the declines after the 911 terrorist attacks in 2001 or the 2008 global financial crisis.
- Business travel spending is estimated to reach about US$1.4 trillion by end-2024, close to slightly lower than the 2019 pre-pandemic revenue peak.
- Major developing economies in Asia Pacific will drive global growth in business travel over the next decade.
