The vaccination rate will mark the recovery of the sector. From this there is no doubt. In fact, countries like China already in 2021 exceeded the number of corporate trips made for the same time period in 2019.
In other countries like Israel, the United Kingdom or the United States, where vaccination is also fast, business trips have recovered, but especially domestic trips, “have already reached 60% of initial volumes,” says Luca Carlucci, BizAway CEO.
He concludes, “You can live again after Covid-19, it is only necessary to vaccinate on a large scale.”
The Evolution of Corporate Travel: Future Trends
Undoubtedly, the crisis caused by Covid-19 and the so-called “new normal” has necessitated a change in business trips that, according to the platform’s CEO, will return with sustainability, safety and risk alerts as key points when traveling.
In this sense, Carlucci highlighted that one of the improvements to its platform in recent months has been to expand the risk management unit by collaborating with Riskline to ensure real-time alerts about any incident (health, political or natural) that occurs in destination countries.
Despite the fact that business travel has decreased by 20% compared to 2019 across Europe, Carlucci points to a change in trend that may have a positive impact on the commercial travel sector: despite the fact that video conferencing has reduced short trips that Made more often, smart working and decentralization of work teams present a new opportunity for the sector.
Changes in work culture
“The arrival of remote work assumes that major changes have occurred in the culture and organization of companies; it is a profound change that had to be implemented very quickly due to the circumstances. Now, the company can distribute its work teams in several geographical regions. This is beneficial to all parties, but also for business trips, As these teams have to meet regularly to develop common strategies and synergies, ”he explains.
In short, “what used to be done in the office, may have to be done now by bringing together work teams spread across several cities at one point through ‘new’ business trips, ” Carlucci concludes.
BizAway CEO also reflects this optimism for the MICE sector: “In Italy, face-to-face exhibitions and conferences start in July, with an international audience; before that Vitor will take place in Madrid.”
“We expect the resumption to begin at the global level from September, with the end of the year already of great importance in terms of revitalization of the entire sector,” he says.
In addition to the importance of vaccination and corporate travel safety, the CEO of BizAway wanted to record the need for flexible service providers in all sectors of its platform (hotels, airplanes, car rental, parking …) and the surge in recent weeks of contracting insurance that covers the possibilities arising from the pandemic. (Infection at the place of destination, etc.).
Checked out photos: Mitchell Luo on Unsplash
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