Business travel in some areas still far below pre-pandemic levels

Financial companies and insurances top the list of those sectors taking business trips again at more or less pre-pandemic levels

For business travel, the return to pre-pandemic normality has been moved back two years to 2026. Inflation, China’s economic problems and the effects on global supply chains were among the reasons listed by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) on Wednesday at ITB Berlin 2023.

Key takeaways

• Following the slump in 2020 the curve had peaked sharply around 2021/22, but had since dropped off again;
• During the pandemic business travel decision-makers had learned that virtual meetings offered advantages in some respects, even if on the other hand there was fundamentally no substitute for meeting in person;
• Moreover, sustainability was increasingly becoming an issue, and fewer business trips meant a smaller carbon footprint. All the while, business trips had not gone entirely out of fashion for internal meetings.

Get the full story at ITB Berlin