Recent travel trends and stats suggest that business travel has evolved post Covid-19. There are no surprises in terms of the average travel spend and average travel frequency. However, it’s quite interesting to see that the profile of travelers largely included technology travelers (26%), followed by healthcare (10%), according to a media group/
After going through a rough patch during Covid-19, travel is gradually coming back and is expected to witness a 21% increase, according to Reuters, in total volumes.
If you notice, the technology labor force in your organization will predominantly be made up of millennials and GenZ (Mill-GenZ). This means that this is the same labor force which will be doing most of the travelling, of the 26% tech travelers in 2022 as mentioned by Expedia. This is a major shift in how travel will be done going forward as their expectation are different than the previous traveler profiles.
Most experts believe that the Mill-GenZ labor force will look at the following factors when they are required to travel on business:
- Combine business with leisure
- Would be more exploratory in terms of accommodations
- OTA (Online Travel Agencies) driven for self-service process
- Friendly travel policies
- Technology driven – AI, VR, Metaverse, and Blockchain
- What’s in it for me?
The travel industry needs to invest more on incentivizing travel for the Mill-GenZ labor force since 43% travelers are expecting to travel less going forward owing to several technology advancements. Following are a few ways to do this:
- Flexible travel policies must be adopted to accommodate Bleisure trips more frequently. OTAs can provide Bleisure itineraries to facilitate this change.
- OTAs can provide more home-like accommodation, by getting small boutique hotels and home rentals which are safe and cost effective. This will also enable their access to leisure activities which they had planned for. Safety is always a concern and corporates should focus on these when they make various concessions.
- Mill-GenZ don’t prefer to go via the OTA route, as they want to be able to most of the planning themselves. OTAs are however the way to go, for corporates, or any business travel going forward. According to projections from Reuters, around $1.4 trillion would be spent on business travel by 2024. This day is not far away, so it will be well worth the investment for OTAs.
- Mill-GenZ would mostly prefer making direct bookings to save on costs. In fact, according to Expedia, 47% of this population prefer going direct. However, corporates need to look at a wide range of aspects and compliance regulations for its employees, even if it means that they have to spend a little extra. Young business travelers must also understand the intent behind corporate travel policies , and why it is important to adhere to them.
- Based on various studies and data collected by Travel Solution companies, we know that 39% of all hotel bookings and 22% air bookings are done by handheld devices currently, and it is going to increase with the change in traveler profiles going forward. Read More
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This story authored by Sudindar Rao was published in The Times of India.
