Is business travel ready for take-off?

But it would take at least two years for travel spending to reach pre-pandemic levels, as travel growth is expected to slow in 2023.

“Business travel seemed to be ready for take-off last summer, but the emergence of COVID-19 variants quickly grounded plans [and] as a result, leaders are more conservative in their estimates for business travel’s recovery,” says Mike Daher, vice chair at Deloitte and US transportation, hospitality and services non-attest leader.

Travel spending was eight% of 2019 levels in Q2 2021, 13% the following quarter and 20% by the last three months of 2021, according to Deloitte.

Government restrictions hampered a major return to business travel in 2021, according to a previous report.

Flexibility

Workplace flexibility is also affecting business travel, according to Deloitte, as travel managers expect the future work-from-home rate to be 2.5 times higher than before the pandemic.