(Reuters) – Business travel spending is expected to grow 21% this year worldwide, helped by the roll-out of COVID-19 vaccines, but they will not exceed pre-pandemic levels until mid-term decade, the business travel association said Tuesday.
Expenditure on business travel is expected to rise to $ 842 billion in 2021, according to the BTI Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) Forecast, after falling 52% in 2020 to $ 694 billion due to the disease panoramic.
After a decade of steady annual growth, business travel is expected to show a loss in 2020 that was 10 times greater than the recessions following the September 11, 2001 or 2008 recession attacks, GBTA said.
Despite the expected growth in travel in 2021, uncertainty about vaccine progress and U.S. President Joe Biden’s policies may affect its recovery.
“The continued roll-out of the vaccine will be at the heart of global recovery, as will decisions made by the new Biden Administration on global trade and border and quarantine policies,” Dave Hilfman, GBTA’s interim executive director, said in a statement.
As U.S. airlines also anticipate, the group said businesses are likely to spend more on travel that cannot be duplicated by online meetings such as sales calls and service trips.
It is estimated that the proportion of companies ’travel budget spent on internal meetings will decrease by 6%, compared to 2019, the group said.
By the end of 2024, business travel spending is expected to reach around $ 1.4 trillion, almost equivalent to the 2019 pre-pandemic revenue peak of $ 1.43 trillion, the group said. He expects a full recovery in 2025.
Key emerging economies in Asia Pacific will drive global growth in business travel over the next decade, the group said.
Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal; Edited by Cynthia Osterman