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
