Half of travel buyers indicated their organisations' employees now are very or somewhat willing to travel, according to a new Global Business Travel Association survey. The survey, conducted between 9 and 16 November, coincides with news of the apparent efficacy of several potential Covid-19 vaccines.
GBTA surveyed 822 industry professionals, 40 per cent of whom were travel managers or procurement professionals.
Some 60 per cent of European travel buyers surveyed indicated they expect their organisations to reach half of their 2019 domestic business travel levels within four to nine months. Half of buyers expect regional business travel to take the same amount of time to recover.
Long-haul business travel is expected to take longer to recover, with 63 per cent of European buyers expecting it to take between 10-24 months until it is at least half of 2019’s level.
The survey also revealed that 66 per cent of European travel buyers and procurement professionals felt there should be an exception to mandated quarantine requirements for international business travellers.
Buyers also were asked how willing their companies would be to encourage employees to download an app that would track and trace travellers to assist in contact-tracing efforts. About half said their companies would be very or somewhat willing to implement such a policy, with 15 per cent unwilling, with the rest either unsure or "neither willing nor unwilling."
Additional reporting by Mark Frary