Corporate Travel Faces a Grand Experiment
Skift Take
Corporate travel is barreling down an uncertain road to a facelift that could strip it down to essential business by the time the travel sector gets to the other side of its coronavirus rebound.
The recovery timelines for post-pandemic corporate travel are as believable as readings from a crystal ball, said the travel directors at major tech companies including Microsoft and Twitter Wednesday at Skift Global Forum.
Travel analysts generally project the return of business transient travel will arrive upon the widespread distribution of a vaccine. The sector is already returning in China, and business travel is expected to revive in the U.S. sometime ahead of the expected full hotel recovery in 2024, the thinking goes.
https://youtu.be/qJuqDuLiV3wBut travel planners aren’t buying even that glimmer of recovery optimism, instead they are pondering the ways business travel will be reimagined through new ways of thinking, breaking down corporate stasis, and, of course, new technologies.
“The inherent way we do business is changed forever,” said Eric Bailey, global director of travel at Microsoft, during a panel moderated by Skift Corporate Travel Editor Matthew Parsons.
