Is this the end of the one-day business trip?

That’s right – after a period of instability during the pandemic, our research indicates business travel spending is poised to exceed 2019 levels this year at $1.5 trillion. But as we look at the current and future state of business travel, we aren’t just taking our same pre-COVID business trips. In fact, we’re looking at a whole new era of business travel – one defined by the near absence of the one-day business trip – and the deluge of questions that go along with it:

• How are we defining business travel in a post-pandemic world?
• What does it mean to be a business traveller in 2024 and beyond?
• Is the demise of the one-day business trip a good thing?

The rise of the multi-day business trip
For as long as I’ve known, one of the main narratives around business travel has been how to ‘survive’ it. This is particularly the case when looking at one-day trips involving flights, which can be exhausting for travellers. Early morning departures, late night returns and the potential for delays along the way can wreak havoc on our productivity and negatively impact our physical and mental health.

Given the break from most business travel during the pandemic (except, of course, for essential travel), the recovery period has inspired people and companies to look at different ways of engaging with business travel. Confirmation of this is in the 2024 GBTA Business Travel Index Outlook – Annual Global Report and Forecast, our most comprehensive survey data and analysis. Released in July and based on the responses from 4,100 business travellers across five global regions, the report found they rated the one-day trip as the least popular in terms of length.

However, just because the one-day business trip is no longer prevalent does not mean that business travel has stopped. Rather, it has evolved to prioritise more thoughtful, productive, sustainable trips that consider both traveller wellbeing and the effect on the environment.

Therefore, it’s not surprising that our data now shows business trips of three to five days in length are actually the most popular, constituting 40 percent of business travel. Two-night stays were the next most popular at 32 percent (for comparison, one-day business trips ranked at only five percent). These longer trips optimise productivity and enable travellers to get more out of each trip, both professionally and personally. In fact, since we have seen this shift, people are travelling more than they did before the pandemic, when one day travel was more commonplace.

This is an incredibly important shift, not just for business travel, but for the travel and associated industries as well. With these longer trips – which travellers are increasingly likely to blend with leisure – hoteliers, tour operators, regional attractions and other hospitality businesses in these destinations can dramatically increase revenue and even cultivate opportunities for return visits.

More economically sustainable
There are operational reasons for this shift away from one day business travel, too. Our research uncovered that while travel spend has stabilised, returning to 2019 levels, the price of business travel has increased. As a result, one day trips have become less economically viable for many companies.

Click here to read the full article on Travolution.com.