Business travel’s full recovery years away

ALEXANDRIA, Virginia USA, 4 February 2021: Business travel will not recover fully until 2025 according to projections made by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) arguably the world’s largest business travel association.

It released its annual BTI Outlook, a detailed analysis of
business travel in 2020, with projections for 2021 and beyond earlier this
week.

Now in its 12th year, the study of business travel spending and growth covers 75 countries across 48 industries. The report shows that the global financial impact of Covid-19 began in Q2 2020, resulting in an expected 68% decline (USD738 billion) from 1 April 2020 to the end of the year.

Because of the relatively strong (pre-Covid) 2020 first
quarter, global spending on business travel is expected to show a 52% decrease
for all of 2020 (USD694 billion), down from USD1.4 trillion in 2019.

2020 Losses and Challenges

• Global GDP is expected to have declined -4.4% in
  2020, an unprecedented decline when compared to the -0.5% decline experienced
  during the Great Recession of 2008.
• Global trade is expected to contract by almost
  11%, due to lockdowns that temporarily froze the movement of people and goods
  and forced a review of supply chain networks, resulting in many countries
  looking to source locally.
• Job losses in the business travel industry have
  been extensive. The loss in global work hours during 2020 compared to the end
  of 2019 was equivalent to 400 million full-time jobs in the hotel, airline,
  airport, ground transportation, restaurant and other service provider segments.
• Business travel had grown for 10 consecutive
  years, with an average growth rate of 5.1% per year right up to the first
  quarter of 2020.

• The 2020 business travel spending
  losses are expected to be 10 times larger than the impact of either 9/11 or the
  Great Recession of 2008.

Forecast on Business Travel Recovery

• A 21% increase in business travel spending is
  projected in 2021. Most of this gain is expected to come at the end of 2021 as
  vaccinations increase globally, and consumer confidence returns.
• In 2022, the BTI Outlook forecasts further
  acceleration in business travel, including a significant pick-up in group
  meeting activity and international business travel.
• While annual business travel spending growth is
  expected to slow somewhat in 2023, it is projected to remain well above
  historical average rates of growth of 4.6%. By the end of 2024, annual business
  travel spending is projected to reach approximately $1.4 trillion, nearly
  equaling the 2019 pre-pandemic revenue peak of USD1.43 trillion.
• A full recovery to pre-pandemic levels is
  expected by 2025.