Key Trends in Business Travel (2024)

Analysis of the business travel sector including insights in business travelers, market trends influenced by COVID-19, consumer trends, destinations, sector deals, challenges and opportunities.

Key Highlights

• The overall outbound trips for business purpose during 2023 was 174.23 million which was an increase of 68.95% in comparison with 2022 (103.3 million trips). Globalization drives the demand for international business travel, as businesses expand their operations, diversify revenue streams, and capitalize on emerging trends. However, the outbound trips undertaken during 2023 remains lower than its pre-pandemic level in 2019 (207.28 million trips). The analyst forecasts that outbound business travel is set to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2024 (220.12 million) and reach 276.63 million trips in 2028 with a CAGR of 9.69% from 2023 to 2028.
• According to the analyst's traveler demands and flows database, Chinese travelers took 13.87 million outbound business trips in 2023, which represented 7.96% of overall global business trips. Although there has been tremendous growth in China's domestic tourism after the removal of the country’s domestic zero-COVID policies, its outbound tourism has faced more constraints.
• The global business travel market value in 2019 reached $239.34 billion, which decreased by 3.7% ($9.09 billion) compared with 2018 ($248.43 billion). The pandemic significantly impacted the business travel industry, resulting in a reduction in market value to $96.58 billion in 2020 due to travel restrictions and a subsequent decline in employees' confidence to travel for business purposes. The recovery phase has been under way since 2021, and thanks to a reduction in travel restrictions, the market value reached $145.49 billion in 2021 before rebounding further to $197.23 billion in 2022. However, the market value of business travel was lower than the pre-pandemic level.
• During 2023, the overall global international arrivals for business purposes reached 166.01 million trips, which was an increase of 44.79% compared with 2022 (114.66 million trips). However, this is still lower than its pre-pandemic level in 2019 (209.00 million trips). The pandemic in 2020 caused a significant decline in business travel, causing many employees to work from home and canceling scheduled meetings and conferences.

Scope

• This report provides an analysis of the business travel sector including insights in business travelers, market value, market trends influenced by COVID-19, consumer trends, sector deals, challenges and opportunities.

Reasons to Buy

• Gain an insight into Business travel's leading players.
• Understand how they have adapted to the threat of COVID-19
• Understand the key business travelers that companies can look to attract
• Gain a detailed understanding of the key trends, issues and chellenges facing business travel companies (TMCs)