Last year was a year of innovation and changes in the sector of business travel. Technology has shaped how business travels are planned and how their trips are booked, and are continuing to do so this year. Employee habits and expectations related to business traveling have also continued to be reshaped.
New competitors in the industry, bringing fresh ideas and options to corporate travel buyers, have impacted everything in the market from how products are marketed and sold and how contracts are negotiated.
To fully understand the upcoming trends this year with possibly the biggest influences on 2020 business travel trends, leaders must grasp how the sector evolves this year.
5 Business Travel Trends for 2020
All changes impacting the business travel sector have been essential to note, but in this article, we’ll be listing the 5 most relevant Business Travel Trends for 2020.
USER EXPERIENCES DESIGNED TO BOOST ADOPTION
First on this list is prioritizing Great User Experiences Designed to Boost Adoption. Today’s business travel sector increasingly focuses on consumerization topics, a trend with business travelers who demand more consumer-friendly user experiences.
This implies a desire for corporate bookings and trips to provide convenience and instant gratification offered by other consumer tools for simple things like online shopping or planning leisure trips, or even just requesting a taxi.
This 2020, demand for more simple business travel policies and a very comfortable user experience is bound to be substantial for travel managers. And business travel decision-makers aim to provide employees with more user-friendly corporate travel tools increasing adoption and compliance with the company’s travel policies.
END-TO-END EXPERIENCES
One thing that should always be constant in today’s business travel experience is that it might end up going wrong. May it is an unexpected delay of the flight or weather issues, a last-minute change can happen.
Business travelers need to be ready to change their plans at any given moment, but that might be hard to do alongside an already handful amount of responsibilities.
Many travelers are provided booking and trip management but only until that point. Because of this, the demand for better end-to-end experiences will be likely to help you this upcoming year.
BEING THERE IN PERSON
Never underestimate the power of being there in person. What’s always overlooked is that although we have improved video and digital collaboration tools, a face-to-face meeting is still crucial to modern business.
The most vital significant implication that a business is flourishing is when face-to-face meetings are valued. As part of a completed survey of The State of Business Travel 2020, the report notes that managers and business travelers view work travel as very important for driving company growth.
EXPANDING THE SHARING ECONOMY
The sharing economy has quickly become recognized and widely accepted amongst consumers. Many of the world’s biggest sharing economy companies are rapidly moving to expand offerings in the business travel sector.
For corporate travelers, however, there are still several barriers. Challenges related to sharing economy distribution and end-to-end integration into the business travel journey in 2020 continues to grow in popularity.
Last year, there have been significant industry-wide shifts surrounding business traveler use of sharing economy services and products. On the distribution side, there is growing interest in providing business-travel ready sharing economy offers, and Airbnb continues to add more to their options and services that are specifically designed for business travelers.
BUSINESS AND LEISURE TRIPS
Last but not least, on this list is probably the most positively viewed travel trend for 2020. Business trips that double as a personal leisure trip create an opportunity for employees to unwind during a usually stressful trip. This also creates both a challenge and opportunity for travel managers and companies.
Business and Leisure trips, or “Bleisure” as coined by some businesses, raise several travel managers’ challenges. Still, they’re going to be all for it because the employees are always looking forward to exciting things.
Managers’ constant thoughts like what policies should be in place for non-work travel purchases and the company and doubles can cover non-work travel purchases as an incentive for those participating in Bleisure trips.
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