Uniglobe Travel: ‘Business travel recovers faster in Europe than in the U.S.’

Business travel will recover faster in Europe than in the US. That’s according to a global survey of corporate clients of Uniglobe Travel.

The survey shows that far more European than American companies expect their employees to resume travel between now and 3 months.

Only 32% of U.S. companies reported that their employees are already traveling or plan to do so within 3 months. Among European companies, the figure is 61%.

Globally, the percentage was 48.7%. The survey, conducted in June among Travel Managers of corporate clients, asked 14 questions about how their travel policies have changed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and their expectations for resuming business travel.

Of European companies, 56% have updated their current travel policies, compared to only 41% of U.S. companies. The most common changes involved restricting or excluding travel for internal meetings (64.1%), followed by restricting participation in conferences depending on the number of attendees or location (54.1%).

‘When we look at the changes in travel policy, there is a clearly discernible, more traveler-centric approach,’ says Martin Charlwood, President & Chief Operating Officer of Uniglobe Travel International.

‘Aspects like hygiene, health, safety are considered important. Nonstop flights are preferred over transfer connections. The amount of travel and accommodation costs seems to be less of an issue at present. Staying in hotels is emphatically preferred versus Homeshare stays, such as Airbnb.’

Another focus of the study concerns sustainability within travel policies. ‘As companies increasingly prioritize sustainability within their travel programs, we know that sustainability in combination with travel can be problematic just now,’ says Cees Klinkenberg, Director of Uniglobe Travel Holland.

‘Many ways of environmentally friendly travel, such as shared transportation, are currently less popular as a result of COVID-19. In line with this, we see an increasing preference for rental cars. On a positive note, more than half of the companies that had incorporated sustainability into their travel policies prior to the coronapandemic expect to expand those policies over the next 18 months.

Photo: Cees Klinkenberg.