Carl Jones’ last trip was to Seoul in February and since his return to Singapore, he hasn’t flown nor has he returned to the office. Like all of us, the executive, who’s been in the corporate travel world for many years, is rethinking how he will travel in future.
While he’s hoping to be able to make a leisure trip end of this year, he’s realistic enough to accept that this may not be possible and instead, has booked a staycation in Singapore, in case.
He applies the same realism to how he sees corporate travel being impacted – some types of trips may not return because technology has made it so much easier to meet and communicate.
Corporate traveller sentiment has also changed, he says, citing a recent study done by SAP Concur, which shows travellers are now more concerned about health and safety, rather than costs, and that the industry must adapt to this shift.
The study, which surveyed 4,850 business travellers in 23 global markets (1,750 respondents in APAC), found that Covid-19 has supercharged health and safety concerns, creating added stress over business travel in APAC.
Nearly half of APAC business travellers (48%, compared to 45% globally) now say they experience the most stress during the trip, rather than before (21%) or after the trip (31%). When the same study was conducted in July-Aug last year, only 31% of APAC travellers cited the trip itself as the most stressful stage of travel.
The good news is, there is pent-up demand for travel with over a quarter (29%) saying they feel excited about being able to resume travel. This sentiment is particularly strong in India, where half of business travellers (50%) say they are excited about their next trip. Nearly 3 in 5 (58%) APAC business travellers have positive feelings about travelling again.
In this podcast, Jones speaks about what these shifts in sentiment mean for travel management companies as they prepare for the day when their customers can travel again.
The reality is, it will be a smaller industry that will emerge after this but those that do emerge will be armed with the right technology and right business model to look after their customers throughout the whole trip.
He also believes that this heightened concern over health and safety might see more of the unmanaged corporate travel market shift towards managed travel.
