Articles tagged “business travel”

The future of travel is the future of corporate travel — just on a bit of a time delay.

Airbnb may be raising the visibility of traditional serviced apartments in the business travel space. It remains to be seen whether homesharing represents an existential threat to established corporate housing providers.

As global events have shown in recent years, business travelers need to be prepared for the unexpected no matter where they go.

One-in-four of Travel Leaders Group's business travel agents say their sales numbers are worse than last year. You have to worry about the sector's health going into 2017, given its quantifiable decline compared to previous years.

Global conditions remain solid for global business travel next year. Hotels are cheap, and airfares are slated for a minor increase. Increased air travel options in China are making it easier for business travelers in North America to visit Asia's strongest economic power.

It's no surprise that business travelers hate waiting in security lines more than any other aspect of the travel experience. But the importance of booking choice to millennials and booking flexibility for Gen Xers shows how consumer booking tools have shifted how workers think about business travel.

The outlook for travel in the U.S. is somewhat cloudy. Low gas prices are bolstering domestic travel, even if its growth rate is creeping downward. The high value of the U.S. dollar and other factors like the upcoming presidential election, however, are suppressing international inbound travel.

Travelers and their travel managers don't always agree on the most important preferences when flying. But most travel managers, for some reason, don't use formal tools to receive traveler feedback. Perhaps the gaps could be narrowed with more engagement between travel managers and travelers.

There are innumerable factors that impact the health of the travel industry but the latest U.S. government numbers on retail spending lead to the conclusion that consumer spending habits are changing. There is a shift in emphasis from purchasing consumer goods toward buying services such as travel. That's a classic tailwind and a very healthy trend indeed for the gamut of leisure-travel businesses.

As companies become more cautious about business travel spending, the corporate travel ecosystem will begin to feel the pressure.