On The Road Again with Corporate Travel

NEW REPORT PREDICTS CORPORATE TRAVEL IS ABOUT TO REBOUND

According to a recent McKinsey study, total global business travel spending was down 52% in 2020. To many of us who do a lot of work in the tourism industry, that number may actually feel like an underestimation.

The study predicts that we may soon be packing overnight bags and heading out on business trips once again, but this time the types of travel are going to be a bit different.

They've identified that, rather than a flat return-to-travel trend, there will actually be four segments of corporate travel in the next couple of years:

1. The Never Left Segment
   About 15% of corporate travel somehow continued on as if nothing ever happened. This is a predictable baseline, and one that apparently can't be stopped even by a global health crisis.
2. The Never Returning Segment
   Somewhere in the neighbourhood of 20% of corporate travel is gone forever. You know the types: the meetings that could have been an email, and the corporate events that we all used to attend, but no one really knew why.
3. The FOMO Segment
   According to the study, this accounts for about 60% of the market. It's the salespeople who are going to visit clients again because they worry that Zoom just won't cut it anymore, startups flying in to pitch investors, and vendors that are looking for face-time to pitch potential clients. While we can come up with a long list of reasons why digital tools are nearly as good as face-to-face, the moment your potential client tells you that your competition is going to be there in person, most of us will be hopping on the next flight.
4. The Wait-and-See Segment
   This one is perhaps the most surprising. It's the folks who are on the fence – they're the ones who don't have a burning need to be there in person, but would if everything felt safe and secure. The group is made up of a lot of public sector staff, nonprofits, and professional associations.

The bottom line, according to McKinsey, is that we should expect to see at least 80% of the corporate travel market return this year. What was excluded from their study — and where there's an opportunity for us all — is in the work-from-anywhere travellers. They don't fit squarely in the corporate travel category because they're typically paying for expenses out of their own pockets, and they tend to stay much longer in a single place. The remote worker, however, could easily make up that 20% gap, which would mean that broadly defined, business travel may actually go up in 2022.

SO WHAT?

As business leaders, there are a few things we'll want to consider:

• First, for some staff, travel is a perk. When our teams see their friends at other companies back on the road, whether that's for flexible work, conferences, or otherwise, they may start wondering when they'll get to stretch their legs on the corporate budget again.
• Next, our customers and clients are going to be on the road again, but few brands seem to be anticipating the move. Look around your industry – are your competitors communicating to business travellers, either by providing services or welcoming them in? Have they made the necessary adjustments to their messaging? This could be a competitive advantage if you move first.

THOUGHT STARTERS

If the McKinsey study is correct, then a lot of the other firms in your space are going back to face-to-face events and sitting down with suppliers/vendors/clients. You may have developed tools and techniques to take advantage of digital, but what happens when you pair that with a strong boots-on-the-ground strategy?

While some brands may be tempted to stick with what's worked over the past two years because they think we're back to business as usual, consider the following ways that you can combine your online and offline tactics:

• Instead of simply handing out business cards, invite people to your exclusive webinar
• Instead of limiting your in-person presentation to PowerPoint, stream in special guests from around the globe
• Instead of travelling to try to meet a community, your brand will have invested in digital community building, so now you can prove that you care by showing up and adding value to their in-person event

Written by Conner Galway, Junction Consulting