Future-Proofing Your Travel Strategy: Top Trends and Automation Strategies

Business travel is back, and after several years of disruption, many corporate travel experts predict a near-complete rebound in 2024, reaching or even exceeding pre-pandemic levels. As ecosystems of partners, suppliers, providers, customers, and employees continue to expand for many companies, the need for more business travel also is increasing. 

A 2024 Global Business Travel Outlook poll of business travel professionals worldwide reports that 68% of companies experienced moderately or significantly increased business travel bookings in 2023.

"Companies are prioritizing in-person work, and it's proven to be a driver of culture, building relationships, and growing businesses, whether you're meeting colleagues or customers, or attending professional development events," explained Fernando Iraola, EVP & GM, Global & US Large Enterprises at American Express at the 2024 GBTA Convention in Atlanta. 

How Corporate Travel Has Changed 

Many corporate travel managers are discovering the world of business travel they knew five years ago now looks different.

Notably, costs have risen in nearly every area: 

• Airfare: According to Business Travel News' 2023 survey of 647 corporate travel agents, over 85% of travel managers report airline ticket prices have impacted their company’s ability or willingness to travel in the last 12 months.
• Lodging: This year is projected to bring double-digit increases in U.S. cities' room rates, according to the American Express Global Business Travel Hotel Monitor for 2024.
• Rentals: Rental car prices are predicted to increase by 5% in the United States this year, the AMEX report notes. 

In addition, there’s now a heightened awareness of health and safety surrounding business travel, which means companies must focus on the well-being of employees who are on the road.

According to a 2023 survey report developed by Wakefield Research and SAP Concur of 700 travel managers across seven markets, 37% of corporate travel managers view health and safety concerns as a top threat to business travel, alongside factors such as logistical concerns and changes to supplier booking and selling procedures.

"Duty of care is the top priority when it comes to businesses making decisions about their travel programs," Iraola reinforced at the 2024 GBTA Convention. "That means companies are not only ensuring the security of their travelers throughout their journeys, but also making sure they remain in compliance with spend policies, fraud prevention policies, and risk management practices." 

He went on to explain that this duty of care extends beyond business travel to blended trips that incorporate personal travel.  "Our Trendex research shows that close to 90% of businesses allow for blended travel, and almost 80% of those businesses strongly believe that they have a duty of care for the business and personal portions of those trips."

The Trends Behind New Business Treks 

As business trips change in 2024, so do the trends surrounding the state of corporate travel today. Consider these two recent developments as examples.

1. Corporate travel must now account for social shifts.

Flexible work arrangements and rising expectations from travelers are just a few of the recent changes in social norms that impact business travel. While videoconferencing platforms and other technologies are often used as replacements for in-person visits, they haven’t made in-person meetings outdated in all situations. According to the Wakefield and Concur report, many employees say business travel is still an essential aspect of maintaining strong client relationships with existing clients (42%) and establishing relationships with new clients (41%), keeping up with the latest trends (38%), and networking with colleagues, and collaborate with team members (37%).

However, employees aren’t willing to settle for lackluster travel experiences. According to a 2023 Deloitte survey of 334 travel managers and executives with various titles and travel oversight, about half of travel managers report employee expectations for flexible bookings and services, such as first class/business class travel, upscale hotels, and impressive amenities, drove their company’s travel costs up last year. 

For some employees, expectations are so high that a lack of flexibility may mean they choose to stay home. Almost three in 10 business travelers say the inability to adjust business trips outside what company policies traditionally allow would cause them to decline the opportunity to travel.

2. Travel is recognized as a strategic priority. 

Purposeful corporate travel that delivers ROI can become a strategic business investment instead of a cost center or a line item on the annual budget.

The Deloitte report found seven in 10 travel managers say their companies now choose to strategically evaluate their corporate travel initiatives. They do this by prioritizing the potential outcomes of business travel while also analyzing its ramifications.

Potential outcomes: 

• Driving more revenue generation
• Developing new skills and career growth
• Networking to form new connections and partnerships
• Building employee engagement
• Reaching new markets
• Connecting with new prospects
• Developing a stronger reputation and presence 

Potential ramifications: 

• Travel expenses (direct and indirect costs)
• Higher carbon footprint
• Productivity loss
• Possible health/safety risks 

Technology’s Role in Managing Business Travel and Expenses

Technology and automation can help travel executives react and respond to these key trends and shifts so they can help their companies enhance efficiency and facilitate the corporate travel experience. 

Here are a few examples of how technology is being used to facilitate the business of managing business travel.

1. Cultivate personalized recommendations.

As business travelers continue to elevate their expectations, technology can support many customized booking options. By generating suggestions for flights, lodging accommodations, and even dining and entertainment automatically based on traveler preferences, it can be easier and quicker to meet specific needs. For example, according to the Amex Trendex: Business Travel Edition¹ survey of 1,012 business travelers, half say that in-flight Wi-Fi (58%) and early check-in at the hotel (50%) are must-haves when traveling for business. If travel managers use technology to document and track these kinds of preferences, then trips can be planned faster with confidence in knowing that employees' requests are being met.

2. Assess and quantify risk.

Identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks posed by business travel is necessary to protect employees from a variety of threats, from natural disasters to cyberattacks. By identifying and quantifying risk before business trips, corporate travel professionals can gain a 360-degree view of the hazards their travelers may face and reduce them.  

3. Manage expenses.

Automated expense management can help control travel costs. This is top of mind for many travel managers: inflationary impacts that fuel increased costs are spotlighted by 41% as their top concern. Traditionally, expense management has been a manual process, where employees track paper receipts, submit expenses individually, and wait for management review and approval. The good news is that, according to the American Express Business Travel Survey, for nearly half of business travelers, managing their travel expense reports for reimbursement has become easier compared to five years ago (49%) or even one year ago (44%). This highlights the significant gains in ease that have come in the last year. Among those who find it easier, most cite their company’s implementation of travel and expense management software as the reason (49%), along with new travel policies (38%) and the use of receipt scanning apps (33%).

To help make it easier to manage travel expenses, these steps can now be automated. Additionally, consolidating information in the cloud allows finance teams to analyze expense data to answer critical business questions.

4. Support intelligent itinerary planning.

Technology can be used to merge data about budgets, timelines, scheduling, and flight/hotel availability so corporate travel professionals can quickly create itineraries and make informed decisions about business travel plans that work for employees. There are all-in-one platforms that can combine travel booking and expense management to consolidate travel and expense data and automate workflows and reports. 

The Takeaway 

As travel managers face increased pressure to juggle priorities from employee expectations to safety risks, they must still manage travel costs at each step of the process, even in the face of inflation and economic uncertainty. Incorporating technology and automation can help optimize travel expenditures so employees can accomplish their travel goals while the teams supporting them behind the scenes can reduce their workloads and optimize processes.

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Learn more about American Express’s suite of supplier payment and corporate T&E solutions here.

¹https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/newsroom/articles/amex-for-business/amex-trendex--business-travel-edition-2024.html

METHODOLOGY:

The business traveler survey was conducted among a sample of 1,012 respondents who are employed full time, traveled by air for work 2 or more times in the past 12 months and submit their own travel expenses. The business travel decision-maker survey was conducted among a sample of 502 respondents who are employed full-time as business travel decision makers for companies with 50 or more employees. Both online surveys were live on June 7-14, 2024. 

The Trending Business Travel Destinations were selected based on American Express commercial customer transactions at US hotels, looking at growth over a 12-month period between April 2022-March 2023 and April 2023-March 2024.