A new survey suggests there may be good news on the horizon for short haul business travel.
By JUL, 61 per cent of global business travellers had taken their first multi-day domestic business trip of the year according to a Global Rescue survey of 1,700 workers taken last month.
On the flip side, only 17 per cent of travellers have taken their first international trip in 2021.
There is no data in the survey to compare Canadian business travel activity to the global data gathered, but the trend presents hope for a business travel comeback.
“Business travel is returning due to climbing COVID-19 vaccination levels and the gradual reduction in government quarantine and testing requirements. Nevertheless, post-pandemic travel trepidations linger,” says Dan Richards, the CEO of Global Rescue.
Open Jaw reported on a different survey earlier this summer, indicating that video conferencing is replacing up to half of all business travel.
Global Rescue’s more recent results show that 35 percent of business travellers say they expect video conferencing to replace about half of routine business travel in the future, while 27 per cent say they expect to use video conferencing sparingly and return to routine business travel for in-person business and sales meetings as the pandemic health threat abates.
The biggest concerns for work-related travel, according to Global Rescue’s results, are: being quarantined (29 per cent); being infected with the coronavirus (30 per cent); a border closing (23 per cent); poor medical infrastructure at their destinations (10 per cent); and insufficient emergency response by their company to help during a medical or security emergency (six per cent).
“Never have business leaders been more aware and more concerned about the duty of care they have to their travelling employees,” says Richards. “Today, the risk profile for business travel is different, and business traveller awareness is at its highest levels.”
