Advantage: Five business travel trends – The Business Travel Magazine

Five business travel trends were outlined at a business update by Advantage Travel Partnership in London this week.

Based on feedback from the consortium’s member TMCs and data from technology partner Travelogix, Advantage Managing Director of Global Business Travel, Andrea Caulfield-Smith, shared the following trends:

Leisure like controls

Advantage members are reporting that some of their clients are giving their travellers more autonomy, recognising that their employees want a more ‘leisure-like’ booking experience. For example, instead of specifying class of flights or hotel star ratings, they are giving their travellers total budgets for a trip and allowing them to decide whether to downgrade to a low-cost carrier and then have more to spend on their accommodation, or to upgrade to premium and stay in a budget hotel.

Advanced bookings

Business trips are now being booked an average 34.01 days in advanced, which is 5.41 days earlier than the average in 2023. Some TMC members report that clients are booking trips as early as four to five months in advance as companies are now more conscious of when they need to travel and the purpose of their trips.

TMC diversification

Advantage is reporting a growing number of TMC members who are now expanding into leisure, and more leisure agents beginning to offer travel management services. This is partly due to the rise in the demand for blended travel, where business travellers are combining work trips with holidays, adding on time to explore a destination, or are staying on to work remotely in that destination.

Shift in reasons for travelling

The purpose of travel is shifting from purely ‘business’ meetings with clients to attending events and conferences and meeting up with colleagues in the new remote working environment. This is supported by figures from the GBTA which showed the ROI on business travel spend is falling. Previous figures showed that $200 worth of sales were generated per $1 spent on business travel but this has now dropped to $145 as the purpose for travelling is changing.

Rise in Economy Class bookings

A drop in transaction value identified in the latest data from Travelogix is due to a drop in the number of business travellers flying in premium cabins, according to Advantage. Bookings in First and Business Class cabins saw a drop of 1.15% and 6.99% respectively while Premium Economy marginally grew. Meanwhile, Economy bookings rose by 7.69%. Caulfield-Smith said this was, in part, due to a younger generation of traveller concerned about their environmental footprint.

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