As travel captures more awareness as a strategic business lever integrated into return-to-work strategies and fundamental employee well-being, companies are likely to look at more integrated travel management strategies. Heightened awareness within the organization may cut both ways, however.
The increased trip justification happening now—even if buyers are correct about trip approval being temporary—could lower travel volumes as a cultural shift occurs within companies to manage the total travel picture, including opportunities not to travel.
Microsoft’s Bailey is already there, and he’s weighing more than cost in the equation.
"In the past, if I flew to New York, I would line up maybe three meetings. That won’t be good enough anymore. That will have to be eight or 10 meetings now" to justify the expense, from a dollars perspective, but also from a time perspective and in terms of carbon emissions, Bailey said.
He added, however, that these will be higher-value trips—both for the companies sending the traveler and for suppliers delivering services to them. "As people look to add more value for each trip, that may mean the cost of each trip goes up," he said.
Will broad distribution of a Covid-19 vaccine reverse that cultural shift around business travel? The travel buyers and consultants BTN talked to didn’t think so—at least not for the near future.
"2021 first half is obviously not going to be aggressive as far as mass travel because of the concern around [the pandemic]. The bigger issue is having people in offices and the meeting places and the health and safety of the travelers, which is the No. 1 concern of us and our business partners," Campbell said. "We all know the effectiveness of [a vaccine] isn’t going to drive people back into the patterns of travel they were in before."
Strachan agreed. "Many conversations in the industry talk about vaccines as the endpoint and, after that, everything comes back to normal," she said, but she’s skeptical about the industry taking that position. "I see it being a more gradual process than that."