The third phase of a combined multinational ‘State of the Market’ survey by Flight Centre Travel Group’s corporate brands and FCM’s consulting arm 4th Dimension (4D) is released today, showing a ‘slow and steady rebound of corporate travel’.
“It’s been vital that we have consistently engaged with our customers via our State of the Market survey, to understand the COVID-19 impacts they are experiencing and to discover the best way we can support them during this period of rapid and continuing seismic change and uncertainty,” said James Kavanagh, managing director Australia, Flight Centre Travel Group.
“The business travel landscape will continue to shift and evolve. While it’s positive to see such a high percentage of companies that have recommenced travel, it is clear that uncertainty will remain for some time, particularly while governments impose border restrictions or quarantine periods. Understanding how companies are resuming business travel and what factors are having the biggest impact on their priorities, will enable us to provide the best possible support going forwards.”
Held in August 2020 and consisting of one-on-one, in-depth interviews with 250 of FCM’s multi-national large-scale clients, plus Corporate Traveller and Flight Centre Business Travel’s SME customers globally, the workshops examined a new path forward for the remainder of 2020 and into 2021, as corporate travel resumes amid new safety and hygiene requirements and protocols.
50% of respondents said they have employees already travelling or booking reservations to travel in the near future. The combined results of the State of the Market research (April to August 2020) show that over 90% of businesses indicated that they planned to travel domestically and short haul international flights, within three months of governments re-opening borders and lifting restrictions such as quarantine. Yet the number of trips taken will likely be lower, as only 26% of businesses are planning to return to their pre-COVID-19 levels for domestic travel during 2021. The remaining 74% of businesses predict reduced domestic travel for the immediate year ahead. Pre-COVID the average number of business trips per traveller was 6-8 per year; this number is likely to fall between 3 and 4 trips per person, per year until 2023.
Clients still have long-haul travel plans on hold indefinitely, as they assess the balance between need and safety. In particular, national businesses in USA, Australia, China and New Zealand were less likely to have long-haul international plans for 2021, indicating only domestic and short-haul international travel will be planned for next year. 29% of respondents from China said they won’t be travelling long haul, while 22% of respondents in New Zealand, 16% in Australia and 7% in the USA indicated the same.
businesses, large and small, are also re-evaluating their travel policies in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic. Now, more than ever before, a travel policy ensures businesses have set guidelines around traveller safety, budgets, required documentation and purpose for travel, while empowering employees to use careful judgement when booking and incurring travel expenses.
84% of businesses interviewed have active travel policies, either at a national or global level. During COVID-19, 40% of respondents who had existing policies introduced interim travel policies, providing more restrictive guidelines for travellers. Interim policies include varying definitions of indefinite travel bans, classifications for business-critical travel (where safe), new approval procedures, general guidelines for changed supplier services and also procedures for business meetings. 50% of customers are making further changes to their policy as travel resumes.
Priorities of revised policies include: health & hygiene; pre-trip approval; business class travel approval; whether the business is essential; journey changes; adhering to COVID conduct; using preferred and COVID safe suppliers.
The full State of the Market report with comprehensive analysis of the survey results and market overview can be downloaded HERE or HERE from 22 September 2020.
