Corporate travel is on the rise. And the travel industry needs to adapt to the needs of post-pandemic business travellers, according to Jonathan Ayache, co-Founder and CEO of LIFT airline.
Based on the data provided by Wesgro Research Unit, the latest NightsBridge online booking statistics for South Africa indicate that accommodation booking trends reveal that the biggest corporate clients reflected an increase of 142.2% for February 2022, compared with February 2021, indicating strong prospects for recovery in business travel.
By region, the highest volume of inbound business trips is expected to originate from Western Europe (56.7 million) and Asia Pacific (56.1 million).
CEO of Tourvest Travel Services Morné du Preez, agrees. “From a travel and tourism perspective, we continue to see corporate clients return to their offices – even if only in a staggered approach – and therefore expect an increase in both domestic and international travel.
“After the November hiccup we all faced, there was an almost immediate return and increase to international bookings which is certainly a reflection of how quickly things can change. Should this continue to increase, we anticipate corporate and government travel to reach almost 70% to 80% of 2019 numbers by the end of 2022.”
LIFT airline, which introduced its Premium offering (equivalent to business class) last year, has also seen a pick-up in domestic travel – which sees a blend of business and leisure travellers.
“The way people travel has changed. Our stats show an increase in joint business and leisure travel, also known as bleisure travel,” says Ayache.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) expects international business travel spending to surge in 2022 and possibly double by 2024.
What the business traveller wants
Business and leisure travellers have different wants, needs and travel patterns.
Business travellers are generally very busy while in transit and need the space to work while away from the office or home. They require comfort and to have everything else covered because there is no time to deal with flight delays or booking changes.
“Despite the impact of the fourth wave and global travel restrictions, December was the best month for LIFT since our launch. We operated almost 3 000 flights, moved ±45k people with 96% on-time performance,” highlights Ayache.
He says business travellers will want to add an element of fun to really make the most of the destinations they visit.
“Employers are likely to agree, as they offer these trips as a perk, accommodating ‘workation’ requests to attract and keep the right talent,” adds Ayache.
According to Tourvest, the company has seen a definite increase in leisure travel too, where several people use the ‘remote working’ opportunity to work from any destination.
While travellers and airlines adapt to the changing conditions around travel, people want to meet, interact and transact on a face-to-face basis, says Du Preez.
“The more countries open-up to travellers and relax the COVID travel requirements, the more faith and certainty people will have in the travel system.”
