SME’s lead business travel recovery
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) lead the corporate and business travel recovery, according to Travel Counsellors – with the biggest growth being seen in companies with an annual travel spend under £500,000
A recent survey of Travel Counsellors’ corporate clients showed that most responders plan to travel between now and March 2022. Nearly 50 per cent plan to travel in 2021 and nearly 30 per cent between January and March 2022.
Over 95 per cent of these clients agree with the statement that ‘business travel is important to meet company objectives’ and that attracting and onboarding new business had been the area most impacted by travel restrictions.
For the last eight consecutive weeks, Travel Counsellors has recorded over £1 million in business travel bookings, which has doubled from this time last year.
The lifting of the US travel ban means that the US is now tops the list of destinations for business travel, knocking the UK off the number one spot:
- US – 24 per cent
- UK – 21 per cent
- UAE – 12 per cent
Financial services sector travels most
The highest number of travellers are from the financial services sector, accounting for nearly 45 per cent of the total, according to the recent Travel Counsellors’ survey. Professional services and consultancy rank the next highest at nearly 18 per cent – with engineering, manufacturing oil and gas, education and media and entertainment all accounting for five per cent of bookings per sector.
The survey also shows that, earlier in the year, the risk of Covid-19 infection was the number-one concern when booking business travel. Now, the most important consideration for business travellers is to have an expert on hand 24/7 to make and manage bookings as well as cost.
Kieran Hartwell, Managing Director at Travel Counsellors, said: “It has been interesting to see that our trends are reflected industry wide. SMEs are the first sector to travel, it is so important for these businesses to establish personal contact with clients and new business prospects, and we enable to do this in the safest possible way.”
Meanwhile, a recent Global Business Travel Association survey revealed that businesses are exploring new focuses for business travel in the wake of Covid variants.