A recent poll conducted by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that, on average, travel managers estimated their companies’ domestic business travel volume was back to 63% of pre-pandemic levels, placing international travel at around 50%.
Meanwhile, more than three quarters (78%) of those travel managers expected the number of business trips taken by employees to be “higher or much higher” in 2023 versus 2022.
In other words, forget the naysayers; business travel is coming back strong after an unsteady couple of years. But will it return unchanged from the heady days of 2019 and earlier? Or have shifts in the way companies and employees view their travel opportunities transformed it forever?
Right now, evidence points to the latter. The rapid growth of remote or hybrid working has allowed employees to reimagine the role that work plays in their lives and push for a more advantageous relationship between professional responsibilities and leisure time.
In fact, the GBTA found that, amongst companies with a hybrid or fully remote work policy, 72% of respondents didn’t expect flexibility to work from home would impact the number of business trips taken by their employees, while 41% of travel managers reported an increase in employees asking to combine a business trip with a vacation or leisure component.
‘Blended travel’, as it’s known, is nothing new, but the increased demand to mix business and pleasure brings with it hurdles that must be overcome by a company’s travel managers.
What activities are allowed on a blended trip? Will the sudden decision to extend a stay invalidate travel insurance? Who is responsible for company assets such as laptops and phones during the leisure component? And many more questions.
battleface recently launched a dedicated Business Travel Insurance Product that was designed to accommodate these shifting requirements from businesses and their employees.
The product, aimed at organisations across all business sectors including corporate, NGOs, educational Institutions, allows policy limits to be altered depending on the trip circumstances – meaning companies can tailor cover and benefits to match the travel policies in place.
battleface’s business travel insurance covers destinations worldwide, including those with a government travel warning in place, meaning if business takes you further afield than a convention in Las Vegas or a conference in Madrid, your employees remain covered.
Interested in finding out more? Go here.