Consulting firm Deloitte on Thursday released its annual
analysis of business travel trends among U.S.-based companies, highlighting in
2025 the mixed conditions under which business travel and the management of that
travel are taking place. Study authors concluded that while business travel
continues to grow “the pace appears to be modest and is very unlikely to exceed
the 9.6 percent U.S. spend growth forecast by the Global Business Travel
Association.”
Small Companies Less Likely to Reduce Budgets
The majority of surveyed companies increased their travel
spending in 2025, compared to 2024. Nearly three-quarters of companies did so,
with an average increase of 22 percent over last year, according to Deloitte. A
smaller slice—but still more than two-thirds—predicted their 2026 travel spend
will outpace 2025 and with a slightly stronger increase of 23 percent on average.
Ten percent of companies overall cited reduced travel spending
in 2025 compared to last year, with the average budget reduction landing at a
considerable 28 percent. Buyers cited slightly better expectations for 2026,
with 9 percent projecting reduced spending and at a lower average reduction of
24 percent.
According to the Deloitte study, larger companies with
bigger travel budgets were more affected by spend reductions in 2025, with 20
percent impacted by cuts and the average cut coming in at 35 percent.
Comparatively, just 6 percent of small companies indicated
budget cuts, and the average reduction across that group was lower at 18
percent.
Deloitte defined “large companies” by their travel spend for
the purposes of this survey, and pegged large companies as those spending
US$7.5 million or more annually on all travel. That is a significantly lower
bar than other industry benchmarks for large travel spend: BTN’s defines large
programs as those that spend at least $14 million air travel in a calendar year;
Amex GBT defines enterprise programs as those that maintain more than $20
million in annual air volume.
Key Business Travel Drivers
Travel managers surveyed by Deloitte cited increasing year-over-year
spend on every type of travel tracked in the study—this could largely be down
to increasing costs (see Barriers to Business Travel below). The most prevalent
increase among surveyed companies were for on-site monitoring visits, where
spend increased for 65 percent of companies in 2025, compared to just over 40
percent of companies in 2024. Leadership meetings were another area of more
intensive travel spend in 2025. Just under 50 percent of surveyed companies
spent more on this type of travel in 2024, while two-thirds spent more on them
in 2025.
As has been reported by many outlets, attendance at conferences
and trade shows was a key investment for businesses. Not only did Deloitte’s
study show companies increasing YOY spending on this travel type, 65 percent of
travelers surveyed said they would attend a conference or event in 2025, making
it the largest incidence for travel and clocking in 2 percentage points higher
than last year.
Almost half of travelers said they would travel for training
in 2025 and 39 percent said they would travel for sales meetings and client relationship
building. Client project work was in store for 36 percent of traveler respondents
and just over one-third would travel for internal meetings.
Barriers to Business Travel
Among the 1,000 business travelers surveyed by Deloitte, 18
percent reported that they traveled regularly (6 to 10 trips annually) and 9
percent reported they traveled frequently (more than 10 trips per year). Year over
year the group that travels regularly increased by 3 percent and the group that
travels frequently decreased by 3 percent in what looks like a travel downshift
among those who travel most intensely.
Among those road warriors, Deloitte drilled into a 10
percent shift in traveler respondents who hit the road 3-plus times per month
to a 9 percent increase in travelers who travel 2 times per month, signaling a
systemic reduction. Additionally, 26 percent of travelers at larger companies
are taking 6 or more trips a year versus 31 percent who did so last year—another
downshift.
The Deloitte study does not mention macroeconomic factors in
play that could be affecting overall business outlook. It does parse some
industry-centric stats—airlines reporting sluggish business travel in the second
quarter and hospitality research company STR citing “lagging corporate demand”
in a recent forecast update that also noted a 3 percent drop in group demand
for the second quarter.
BTN research, however, has noted the impact of U.S. economic
policy and tariffs as a broadly destabilizing factor for the business travel
outlook. The timing of the Deloitte study in July coincided with the U.S.
administration’s march to full tariff implementation on August 7 and the country-by-country
tariff negotiations that led up to that point.
With those dates now past, and some key softening in the U.S
stance on tariffs, several U.S. airlines at a recent Morgan Stanley investor
conference already have marked a business travel uptick late in the third
quarter that they expect to continue in the fourth.
That said, there are still challenges, with travel costs themselves
chief among them.
Fifty-four percent of travel managers responding to the Deloitte
survey cited rising costs as critical factor limiting business travel volumes.
That was 6 percentage points higher in 2025 compared to 2024.
Other factors rising in significance as impediments to
travel included a continued—and for some companies, more intensive—focus on
actioning their sustainability strategies.
Forty-eight percent of companies cited sustainability
commitments as putting a drag on their travel activities, compared to just 38
percent the prior year. Perhaps surprisingly, coming off a recent era of
pent-up demand in business and leisure travel, 34 percent of companies cited an
increasing unwillingness among employees to travel—up about 6 percentage points
from last year.
Formal travel restrictions in 2025 held steady from 2024, with
about 44 percent of companies citing them.
Perhaps a more interesting trend to watch for upcoming
studies will be the shift from tactical travel management—signaled by such controls
as KPIs on travel budgets and pre-trip assessments—to more strategic
governance. The Deloitte study spotted a 3 percent increase in companies
evaluating travel strategy at the C-suite or board level. Rising costs, sustainability
strategies and potentially uncertain business outlook may keep that level of
scrutiny alive.
____________________
Editor’s Note: Results of Deloitte’s business travel
study should be tempered by the fact that response rates to the annual effort
have fallen in recent years. In 2023, Deloitte collected responses among 334
travel managers to support the study. This year, the number of respondents was
less than half of the 2023 universe at just 151. The 2024 survey queried just 104 travel managers,
which should be considered when looking at year-over-year comparisons. The business
traveler portion of the survey netted 1,000 responses this year.