Survey Shows Business Travel & Events On The Rise

The new Business Travel Tracker released its 2022 Q1 survey results showing some positive trends for business travel and event attendance. The tracker is a new monitor prepared by Tourism Economics for the U.S. Travel Association, in collaboration with J.D. Power.

The Tracker includes a quarterly survey of business travelers and the Business Travel Index (BTI), which provides a timely measure of business travel activity in the U.S. during the most recent quarter, based on indicators such as hotel room demand, air passenger volumes and arrivals of international business travelers. The forward-looking components of the BTI provide a glimpse of the current quarter, including hotel and air bookings, and the results of a quarterly survey of business travelers. The business conditions leading index measures the context for business travel in the current quarter, based on forecasts of macroeconomic variables and other leading indicators. In addition to J.D. Power, STR and TravelClick are key data contributors.

According to the powerpoint presentation showcasing a summary of the results on the U.S. Travel website, the survey included 2,593 respondents and surveys were collected between March 4 and 14, 2022. The online survey took place with travelers at Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) and Miami International Airport (MIA). Respondents answered that business travel is an aspect of their current job (or will be after the pandemic), and are employed.

Some of the Key findings of the survey include the following:

• Business travelers expect to resume traveling at a similar frequency as pre-pandemic, averaging about 1.6 trips per month (compared to 1.7 pre-pandemic). The share of expected business trips accounted for by trips for external purposes, such as meeting primarily with people from outside their organization, remained approximately stable with the pre-pandemic share at 50%, with the remainder accounted for by trips for internal purposes. Of external business travelers, 88% expect to take at least one trip in the next six months.
• One-third of business travelers are unsure or expect to travel less to attend conferences/ conventions/tradeshows in the next 6 months than before COVID-19. Nearly one-quarter (24%) of business travelers plan to take more trips to attend conferences/conventions/tradeshows than they did pre-pandemic and 28% expect to travel more to visit customers and suppliers, while just 17% and 13% expect to travel less for both purposes, respectively.
• Many business travelers expect to make more – rather than fewer – trips to meet with customers, suppliers and other external stakeholders than they did pre-pandemic (15% net positive), and more trips for the purpose of internal team or department meetings (10% net positive).
• Business travelers report developing relationships is the most important aspect of their business trips, followed by closing sales and building awareness of their organization’s products or services.
• One-third of business travelers work fully remote and four in five work remotely at least some of the time. Many business travelers who work partially or fully remote report that their employer encourages them to travel to engage with other team members in person (38%), to attend training sessions in person (32%), or to attend in-person company or team celebrations (29%). Fewer than one-in-five partially or fully remote business travelers report they are not encouraged to travel.
• About 6% of business travelers report they are not sure if they will take a business trip over the next six months. The most frequently cited reason was that meetings and conferences are not occurring (16%), or that their company is currently restricting business travel (13%). Just 12% of respondents who are unsure if they will take a business trip over the next six months referenced video conferencing as a reason.

To see more of the results, click here.