TravelPerk Sees Corporate Travel Bouncing Back, But Not for All

Corporate travel spending is on track to reach pre-pandemic levels by the end of this year, but the nature of who is spending looks very different.

“Some companies have cut travel because of interest rates, but the world continues to internationalize and people are more likely to do business with suppliers and customers all around the world, and that is very good for business travel,” Jean-Christophe Taunay-Bucalo, chief operating office at TravelPerk said in an interview this week.

The Barcelona-based business travel management company raised $104 million in a round earlier this year, bringing TravelPerk's valuation to $1.4 billion.

Small- and medium-sized businesses have slowed corporate travel because of sluggish same-store sales amid sustained inflation and higher interest rates, Amex GBT executives said in a May call. SMBs are tightening their budgets while global multinationals continue to travel, they said. Marriott said in a recent call that business travel in the U.S. and Canada was led by strength in large corporates, while Hilton pointed to better results in small versus large corporates. 

The U.S. has proved to be the most resilient market