Global travel is on the rise

Global business travel professionals are in buoyant mood as 2025 fast approaches.

According to the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), global travel spend is predicted to hit $1.63 trillion.

The GBTA’s latest poll quizzed nearly 900 people and it revealed 67% of those surveyed described themselves as optimistic/very optimistic for the year ahead.

That optimism is down to varying factors as outlined by the three answers given by the respondents.

A total of 40% said increased traveller confidence/requests for more travel, while 44% put it down to improving economy/inflation reduction and 46% said it was down to easing travel costs/corporate budgets keeping pace.

Buyers – 52% of them – said they expect higher travel budgets/spending next year while the poll findings showed 59% of employees are attending meetings and conferences as in-person meetings continue to stage a comeback.

Moving on to tech, and the top tech-related challenges facing the industry in 2025 were data security and privacy (59%), budget constraints (60%) while adoption and implementation of new industry-related technologies, including NDC, came out top with 61%.

Within the 56-page document, there is a travel program sustainability section where 75% of respondents said higher costs is the biggest barrier to a more sustainable travel industry.

And 44% of travel buyers said sustainability considerations are, or will, be part of their managed travel programs.

You can read the full report here:https://www.gbta.org/wp-content/uploads/Business-Travel-Outlook-Poll-Q4-2024-vFinal.pdf