The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2025

The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2025

With spending poised to hit record levels in 2025, the macro corporate travel and expense landscape looks strikingly familiar: Employees are on the road in full force, and most companies are seeing business travel as a fundamental lynchpin for driving their corporate success.

Despite this conventional overtone, the underlying practices and management of business travel are undergoing a dynamic transformation, creating far-reaching implications for corporate travel and expense (T&E) programs.

Skift and Navan have conducted global surveys of business travelers and travel and finance managers in each of the past six years. The latest survey data show consistent trends in comparison to previous years, including travelers’ and managers’ recognition of the critical importance of business travel to the enterprise.

Differing from past years is a new shared sentiment about business travel, driven by deeper, more targeted levels of intent and purpose. This distinct shift has profound implications for a new era of business travel and expense management.

In this report:

• Findings from Skift and Navan’s sixth annual global survey. See what respondents think about the most significant issues affecting T&E — and how their sentiments compare to the previous five years of this benchmark study.
• About half of employees work in a “hybrid” capacity — a dramatic drop from about 70 percent a year ago. See how still-shifting workplace dynamics are impacting the future of corporate travel and expense management.
• Managers and travelers (finally) agree on the most important purposes for business travel. Learn how this atypically aligned mindset is leading to a more proactive, targeted mentality in every phase of the corporate travel experience.
• More than 60 percent of travel and finance managers still process expense reports manually. Learn how outdated and inefficient expense management methods are critical challenges in validating the ROI of business travel — and what companies can do to improve the process.
• 77 percent of managers said they are interested in an all-in-one travel and expense platform. Find out why this mindset is accelerating a recalibration of how corporate travel and finance operates.