How COVID-19 Will Change Business Travel

Business travel has come to a halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, as stay-at-home restrictions have required companies to hold more virtual meetings. While the outbreak is not yet over, experts have started to project a potential rebound for corporate travel.

An April poll from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that 98 percent of its member companies had canceled international business trips, and 92 percent axed all or most domestic travel. But in a May follow-up poll, more than half the respondents said they plan to resume travel in the near future.

Those results should not come as much of a surprise, given the importance of business travel. Certify, a corporate expense report and travel software provider, estimates that around 445 million business trips take place each year, valued at $251 billion (the GBTA puts that number closer to $345 billion annually for travel and meeting expenditures). An Oxford Economics study found that each dollar invested in business travel can result in as much as $12.50 in revenue. Add it all up, and it's a tremendous potential amount of money that corporations rely on to stay in business.