Some of the world’s most frequent business travellers are optimistic about future travel, according to a report released by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) at the organisation’s convention in San Diego, California, this week.

Last month (July 2022), GBTA surveyed over 400 frequent business travellers and nearly four dozen executive travel budget decision makers across four global regions on their plans going forward and overall, the sentiment is positive.

Headlining the results are executives saying they firmly needs to travel to accomplish their business goals and the majority saying they expect to travel more for work in 2023 than they did in 2022.

The survey has also confirmed Covid concerns are taking a back seat to current macroeconomic and geopolitical issues.

The key findings include:

•85% of business travellers surveyed said they definitely need to travel to accomplish their business goals. Over three-fourths said they expect to travel for work more or much more in 2023 than they did in 2022.

•84% of senior global corporate finance professionals voiced confidence their travel spending would somewhat or significantly increase in 2023 compared to 2022.

•73% of business travellers and 38 of 44 senior global financial executives agree inflation/rising prices will impact travel volumes.

•69% of business travellers and 33 of 44 global financial executives are concerned a possible recession will impact travel.

•68% of business travellers and 36 of 44 financial executives expect Covid infection rates and variants to have an impact on their travel.

The survey was released at the 2022 GBTA Convention in San Diego, which revealed the business travel industry’s recovery has slowed down and now is expected to hit 2019 spending levels of USD$1.4 trillion in 2025-2026, some 18-months late.