Alexandria, VA − As 2024 attracts to an in depth, there may be robust sentiment from the worldwide enterprise journey business that the 12 months outperformed expectations, paving the best way for elevated budgets, strategic investments and progress initiatives for 2025. That is based on a brand new analysis ballot by the International Enterprise Journey Affiliation (GBTA) the place 86% of worldwide enterprise journey patrons and journey suppliers surveyed mentioned that enterprise journey carried out on par or higher than they anticipated in 2024.
Moreover, with 67% of pros stating their common outlook is optimistic for the business’s future, the outcomes recommend a powerful want for enterprise journey growth in 2025. This underscores the business’s resilience and flexibility over the previous few years and highlights an elevated focus forward on budgets, expertise and sustainability, whilst firms navigate rising journey prices and evolving traveler preferences.
GBTA’s findings illustrate an business at a pivotal level. Enterprise journey is greater than rebounding, it’s reworking − pushed by the necessity to handle prices and danger, guarantee robust traveler productiveness and expertise, and drive accountable progress. As 2025 approaches, business leaders are balancing growth with accountability, trying to harness new expertise, journey developments and sustainable practices to allow enterprise journey to proceed to ship unbelievable worth in a quickly altering world. Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA
Now in its thirty fifth version, the GBTA ballot displays responses from virtually 900 enterprise journey professionals worldwide, providing important insights into the developments, challenges and future expectations for world enterprise journey. Listed here are among the key findings from the GBTA Enterprise Journey Business Outlook Ballot:
Constructive Sentiment and Optimism, Now and Forward
When requested how they thought the enterprise journey sector has fared in 2024, survey outcomes reveal that 93% of journey patrons and 79% of journey suppliers consider the sector has met or exceeded their expectations, regardless of variable financial and operational situations.
As enterprise journey professionals put together for the brand new 12 months, two-thirds (67%) report an optimistic outlook. Solely 6% are pessimistic. North America and Latin America lead this optimistic sentiment, at 71% and 72%, respectively. Patrons, particularly, report extra confidence than suppliers, with 71% of patrons expressing optimism for 2025, in contrast with 62% for suppliers.
Whereas journey applications are maintaining a tally of the financial system, few plan to restrict enterprise journey subsequent 12 months. Over half (55%) are unlikely or aren’t severely contemplating limiting enterprise journey in 2025. Solely 17% are limiting enterprise journey due to financial issues.
A rising share of patrons (52%, up from 44% in 2023) predicts an improve of their company journey budgets, to help customer-facing conferences, gross sales initiatives, conferences, and inside collaborations. Some 7% anticipate budgets to be “considerably” increased. Solely 16% of patrons anticipate lowered budgets, demonstrating a seamless, clear dedication to in-person engagement in 2025.
Requested to pick out as much as three prime elements driving their optimism for the 12 months forward, enterprise journey patrons and suppliers mostly say easing journey prices/company budgets preserving tempo (46%), enhancing financial system/inflation discount (44%), and elevated traveler confidence/extra requests for journey (40%).
Rising Patterns and Preferences of Enterprise Vacationers
The survey additionally displays ongoing shifts in traveler preferences. The development of “blended journey” − combining work journeys with leisure functions − continues to be on the rise, with virtually half of patrons (46%) saying workers at their firm are taking extra “bleisure” journeys as we speak than they did a 12 months in the past. Solely 9% say workers are taking fewer blended journeys.
In-person conferences proceed to bounce again. Three in 5 patrons (59%) say their firm’s workers are attending extra in-person conferences and conferences now than they did a 12 months in the past. Moreover, 45% of journey patrons mentioned their workers needed to journey extra this 12 months in comparison with 2023.
“Linked” enterprise journeys that mix a number of conferences and/or stops in a single journey proceed to extend. Over half of patrons (53%) say their firm’s workers are taking extra linked journeys than they did a 12 months in the past. Nevertheless, day journeys for enterprise are on the decline whereas journey period will increase. A bigger variety of patrons report seeing fewer day journeys (27%) over the previous 12 months than extra day journeys (21%). Moreover, over a 3rd of patrons (36%) report longer period of journeys versus final 12 months.
Challenges Forward: Value, Compliance and Complexities
The survey reveals that balancing bold objectives with sensible constraints might be a central problem in 2025. Corporations should navigate finances limitations alongside pressures for technological and sustainable transformation. Value management stays paramount, cited by three-quarters of journey patrons (78%) as one of the crucial necessary strategic priorities for his or her program subsequent 12 months, alongside traveler security (65%) and return on funding of journey (49%).
By way of the most vital limitations journey managers are anticipating subsequent 12 months, the highest concern by far is rising journey prices and budgets not preserving tempo (74%), adopted by expertise evolution (40%) and worker journey program compliance (40%).
Sustainability Stays a Complicated however Important Focus
For 2024, 46% of journey professionals say sustainability was a excessive precedence, with 44% already integrating sustainability initiatives into their applications. Nevertheless, journey patrons say obstacles stay, as 75% cite increased prices as a barrier, together with issues about complexity (not figuring out the place to start), ambiguous emissions measurement requirements, and traveler inconvenience. Journey patrons additionally noticed good points in workers making extra sustainable journey selections, with one-third reporting a year-over-year improve in rail/practice journey (38%) and multimodal journeys (33%). Europe leads all areas in these metrics, exhibiting that availability of sensible rail choices is a desk stake in enabling an extra rise in traveler sustainable choices going ahead.
Additional, respondents based mostly in Europe (61%) and APAC (64%) usually tend to say sustainability is a excessive precedence than respondents based mostly in North America (34%). On the identical time, 60% of patrons in Europe, versus 36% in North America, have already built-in sustainability into their journey applications, reflecting regional variations in dedication (and obtainable choices) to environmental methods.
Expertise Adoption and AI Integration Stay a Prime Precedence
With digital transformation as a precedence, almost half (49%) of journey applications plan to ramp up investments in expertise. But challenges persist—finances constraints, integration points, and information safety stay important hurdles that organizations should tackle to comprehend expertise’s full potential.
Synthetic intelligence (AI) is gaining traction as a core part of strategic operational enhancement throughout the business. Two in 5 GBTA respondents (44%, up from 32% final 12 months) say they’re excited concerning the influence of AI on the enterprise journey business, whereas one in 4 (23%) really feel it’s too early to find out the influence of AI.
The ballot finds solely 14% of patrons presently use AI of their journey applications, however this marks an 8-point improve from the earlier 12 months, suggesting a heightening curiosity and adoption charge. Whereas necessary, AI isn’t a prime precedence for 34% of purchaser contributors and 26% view it as a low or no precedence, although there’s a noticeable shift in direction of recognizing AI’s vital worth.
Navigating NDC Implementation Challenges and Alternatives
New Distribution Functionality (NDC) stands out as a vital space the place the business’s push for innovation meets sensible challenges. Whereas 29% of journey administration firms (TMCs), on-line reserving instruments (OBTs) and world distribution programs (GDSs) report easy NDC content material implementation and are actually providing NDC content material to their purchasers, half (52%) encountered challenges, signaling a fancy transition however with a noticeable motion in direction of broader acceptance.
The patrons’ journey in direction of NDC adoption displays a mix of enthusiasm and hurdles, with 16% citing a seamless implementation and 31% dealing with challenges. This delineates a panorama of cautious optimism and the popularity of NDC as a vital however difficult evolution in journey distribution. There may be stronger implementation/adoption in Europe (54%) and APAC (50%) than in North America (45%) and LATAM (29%).
Methodology: A complete of 890 responses had been acquired by GBTA from world journey patrons, suppliers and different business professionals throughout North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa and Center East for the ballot fielded October 7-18, 2024.
View the whole 35th GBTA ballot outcomes and key highlights, together with the full sequence of GBTA Enterprise Journey Business Outlook polls.
To be taught extra about GBTA Analysis, go to the GBTA webpage or e-mail [email protected].
About GBTA
The International Enterprise Journey Affiliation (GBTA) is the world’s premiere enterprise journey and conferences commerce group headquartered within the Washington, D.C. space and serving stakeholders throughout six continents. GBTA and its 8,000+ members symbolize and advocate for the $1.48 trillion world journey enterprise and conferences business. GBTA and the GBTA Basis ship world-class schooling, occasions, analysis, advocacy and media to a rising world community of greater than 28,000 journey professionals and 125,000 energetic contacts. For extra info go to gbta.org.
Concerning the GBTA Basis
The mission of the GBTA Basis, the US 501c3 charitable arm of the International Enterprise Journey Affiliation, is to assist the worldwide enterprise journey business create a constructive influence and higher future for folks and the planet. The GBTA Basis focuses on the technique and execution of GBTA’s world sustainability applications, supporting initiatives associated to local weather motion; range, fairness and inclusion; and different talent-related subjects by way of schooling, analysis and advocacy. For extra info go to gbtafoundation.org.
Debbie Iannaci
GBTA International Communications, PR & Analysis
+1 305 301 7057
GBTA
