Higher levels of optimism in the business travel sector have started to appear, according to research by the Global Business Travel Association.
The organisation said that domestic and essential business travel were likely to resume first, aided by industry standardised health and safety standards.
“For the first time since the start of the pandemic, supplier members are starting to see some uplift in bookings. This positive trend is supported by the slight increase in member companies looking to restart travel in the short term (one to three months). To continue this trend there is strong support from GBTA member companies who want consistent health and safety measures for every travel vertical. This is critical, and GBTA has been lobbying intensely on behalf of members, we have already seen great collaborative progress in the hotel and airline sectors,” said GBTA CEO Scott Solombrino.
While business travel continued to stall, there were some signs companies were slowly resuming some business travel. The poll revealed half (49%) of companies planned to resume domestic travel in the near future and one in five (22%) planned to resume all travel in the next one to three months as well. Finally, the poll revealed a small uptick in the number of companies allowing some essential travel (44% compared to 37% in the previous GBTA poll released on May 20, 2020)