Upward climb with uphill struggles: 2024 Deloitte corporate travel study

Corporate travel outlook

While leisure travelers returned in a big way to airports, hotels, and vacation rentals beginning in the summer of 2021,¹ corporate travel has been slower to return post–COVID-19 pandemic. Caution—initially about health, and then about financial costs and environmental impact—led most companies toward gradual returns to the road.² New structural realities of working life have also curtailed the need to travel, with more home-centered days and virtual meetings, and fewer clients in office day to day to take sales meetings or collaborate on projects.

Still, corporate travel holds significant value across industries. By the end of 2024, US-based companies’ spend is expected to reach and perhaps surpass 2019 levels (figure 1). Findings from the fourth edition of Deloitte’s surveys of travel managers, travelers, and budget owners (fielded between May 8 and June 3, 2024) indicate that corporate travel spend could grow by 8% to 12% in 2024. That rate would put it well ahead of The Conference Board’s projected³ 2.1% GDP gains, indicating a still-recovering industry. Frequency per traveler is up versus 2023 too—77% of business travelers say they took one to five trips in 2023, 15% took six to 10 trips, and 7% took more than 10. In 2024, 20% of travelers expect to take six to 10 trips, and 10% say they will take more than 10 trips. In 2025, travel managers expect growth to slow by a couple of percentage points, but gains appear likely to continue to pace at two to three times GDP growth.