Europe: Meetings, events and hospitality technology provider Cvent has issued a report which reveals that the majority of travel managers are optimistic about current and future business travel activity.
The Cvent Travel Managers Report: Europe Edition provides insights into corporate travel sourcing trends and activity.
80 per cent of survey respondents said that they feel positive about the state of their organisation’s business travel activity. Among them, almost two-thirds (64 per cent) expect their company’s travel volume to increase in 2023 compared to 2022, and nearly a fifth (19 per cent) say the increase will be “significant”.
In conjunction with this, just over half of the respondents are expecting “somewhat” of an increase in the average budget per trip, and 19 per cent a “significant” increase.
However, 65 per cent reported that their top concern is rising costs for 2024 programs, with 30 per cent expecting ground transportation costs to rise the most. Other areas of concern regarding increased costs include hotel rooms, travel expenses and amenities, insurance, technology expenses, and travel visas.
To reduce spend, 40 per cent of corporate travel managers aim to combine business travel with existing meetings and events that teams already have scheduled. 37 per cent also state that they plan to reduce the number of colleagues travelling.
Graham Pope, Cvent VP of international sales, said: “These results not only highlight the exciting business travel momentum, but also illustrate the incredible opportunity for hotels, venues and destinations to capitalise on this resurgence. After the strong return of leisure and MICE travel, corporate travel managers are eager to get their teams back on the road but are keen to work with hotels that understand their needs and can be flexible given budget constraints.
“To maximise visibility and buyer engagement, hoteliers should continue to prioritise their online presence and provide relevant content that is quickly and easily accessible. In addition, hotels and venues that minimise lead response times and provide robust digital sourcing tools will help travel managers make quicker decisions, helping these hotels and venues win more corporate travel business,” he added.
The full report by Cvent can be downloaded here.