As borders open up, especially in Europe, and airlines and hotel chains gradually resume operations, companies are becoming increasingly optimistic about the recovery of business travel. Especially in the area of local travel. This is reflected in a new wave of the survey that the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), of which IBTA is a member, has been conducting since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to this eighth wave of the survey, 49% of companies expect to resume local business travel in the next 3 months. Even 22% plan to resume all travel in the next 90 days. In addition, the report notes a slight increase in companies already allowing some essential travel (44% compared to 37% in the survey a month ago).
Supplier recovery
Business Travel related service providers are also showing some optimism after experiencing an increase in bookings. Forty-six percent of travel and CCT providers confirm that their bookings have increased in recent weeks, although one in four say that their bookings have not increased.
The mood among suppliers regarding the industry's recovery is improving as the weeks go by. Forty percent say they are more optimistic than in recent weeks (compared to 28% in the previous survey). Half (50%) feel the same and only 10% feel more pessimistic.
All players in the business travel industry say that protocols and security measures are critical to recovery. Almost all companies consider COVID-19 protocols to be important for airlines (96%), hotels (96%), RAC (93%), carpooling (93%), taxi (92%), and meetings and events (91%).
On the other hand, the vast majority of respondents say that the Business Travel sector has already passed the worst in terms of cancelled flights (86%), suspension of hotel operations (78%), employment regulations (52%) and impact on revenues (47%). However, 1 in 3 believes that the worst is yet to come in terms of employment regulations (31%) and loss of revenue (34%).
Credits https://revistatravelmanager.com/encuesta-gbta-continua-el-optimismo-en-el-business-travel/