Skift Report: 10 Business Travel Trends for 2020

It’s been another fast-paced year for the business travel sector. Technology continues to reshape how business travelers plan and book their trips, and employee habits and expectations related to business travel continue to evolve. Meanwhile, new industry competitors are bringing fresh ideas and options to corporate travel buyers, impacting everything from distribution, to how products are marketed and sold, to expense management and contract negotiation.

For the decision makers that oversee corporate travel policy and spending decisions— including CFOs, Procurement, Operations HR and Travel Management leaders—it can be difficult to keep track of it all. How much will changing employee behavior impact the success of their programs? What tools should they utilize to balance the needs of travelers and the demands of the company balance sheet? And which industry-level trends will have a meaningful impact on their business?

It is with these questions in mind that Skift and TripActions are releasing “10 Business Travel Trends for 2020,” offering a macro-level look at the employee preferences, best-in-class business travel tools, and company-wide strategies the sector’s decision makers will need to watch out for in 2020. The included trends were selected from a range of sources, including recent industry news, interviews with key industry experts and executives, and data drawn from a primary research study conducted by Skift in the summer of 2019.

Among the key themes that surfaced from the reporting are trends related to the importance of travel to achieving business objectives and growth, more user-friendly corporate travel tools, employee preferences related to sharing economy services and “bleisure” travel, the evolution of business travel expense management, and the growing imperative to address sustainability within business travel programs, among others.

What does 2020 hold for the business travel sector? While there may be no crystal ball to definitively predict the future, Skift and TripActions hope that this report will provide guidance to industry leaders as they set their corporate travel agendas for 2020 and the years beyond.

In this report

• A round-up of 10 trends shaping corporate travel strategies, budgets, and policies in 2020
  
• Analysis of current industry challenges facing business travel decision-makers
  
• Examination of survey data investigating the attitudes and preferences of business travelers and corporate travel managers
  
• Reaction to the trends based on interviews with stakeholders including corporate travel executives, business travelers, and corporate travel managers