15+ Top Business Travel Statistics For 2024: Costs And Concerns
Now that things are slowly going back to normal, business trips are making a comeback.
Whether you’re one of the seasoned business travelers that had to stay home due to the pandemic or just a freelancer who likes to work while traveling, you’ll want to check out these business travel statistics.
These statistics will give you a better idea of where the global business travel market is headed. You’ll know what to expect in the next couple of years.
Editor’s picks
- The average US business traveler will spend around $949 on a business trip. (Emburse Certify)
- 50% of business travel spending goes toward lodging and air transportation. (Getting Back to Business Report)
- 81% of business travelers mix business trips with leisure. (National)
- Business trips to New York are the most expensive at roughly $1,633. (Motus)
- The global business market is expected to reach $791.9 billion by 2026. (ReportLinker)
Key business travel statistics
The following business travel statistics are everything you need to know if you’re planning on doing business trips again. It includes information on what a business trip can cost and what the industry looked like before the pandemic hit.
There are even travel statistics that might surprise you like how many business travelers would like to continue doing corporate trips.
$949 on average is spent on business travel per trip.
The average US business traveler will spend around $949 on airline fees, accommodations, and other expenses. That makes the average cost of domestic travel to be $111.7 billion annually.
For every dollar spent, companies will usually see a $2.90 profit increase and a $9.50 rise in revenue.
Source: Emburse Certify
The business travel spending forecast was expected to grow $842 billion post-COVID.
In February 2021, a business travel association forecasted the business travel industry to grow by 21%. The optimism was due to the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines.
Business travel spending was also expected to grow to $842 billion in the same year according to the Global Business Travel Association’s BTI Outlook.
Source: Reuters
Lodging and transporation takes up 50% of business travel spending.
50% of business travel spending goes toward lodging and air transportation.
Out of the $334.2 billion that’s spent on business trips, $94 billion goes toward lodging and $70 billion is for air transportation.
Other expenses include $66 billion for food and beverage, $22 billion for retail, $17 billion for recreation or amusement, and $65 billion for other transportation expenses.
Source: Getting Back to Business Report
61% of businesses incorporate leisure activities into their business trips.
A survey found that 81% of business travelers engage in “bleisure” or business mixed with leisure.
61% incorporate leisure activities into their business travel. 41% extend business travel into leisure trips. 33% will book a vacation around a business trip.
Source: National
Millennial’s are more likely to mix business travel with leisure.
Millennial business travelers are more likely to mix leisure with business at 86%. There are Gen Xers that do leisure activities during business trips at 76%.
Baby boomers are not far behind at 73%.
Source: National
90% want to continue travelling for business for the rest of their career.
90% of surveyed respondents want to continue going on business trips for the remainder of their careers. 62% went on to say that they find business travel enjoyable.
Source: Sleep Junkie
Jobs supported by business travel in the US was 500,000 in 2020.
In 2019, there were 1.9 million jobs directly supported by business travel in the United States. However, that number dipped to 500,000 in 2020.
As of 2021, the number improved to 550,000 jobs. Many jobs were lost and have yet to be recovered.
Source: US Travel
New York is the most expensive for business trips.
Business trips to New York are the most expensive at roughly $1,633. This is followed by San Francisco ($1,603), Boston ($1,552), Seattle ($1,441), Washington, DC ($1,429), and Los Angeles ($1,395).
The least expensive city is Orlando at $963.
Source: Motus
Pandemic-related business travel statistics
Corporate travel during the pandemic was suspended. International and domestic business trips were canceled because everyone had to stay home.
This led to business travel spend going down. These statistics will give us a glimpse of how business travel spend was affected in the last couple of years.
The tourism market lost $1.4 trillion to $1.9 trillion in travel spend.
International travel worldwide took a dip in 2020 as soon as the pandemic hit. It went down by 58% to 78%.
The tourism market lost $1.4 trillion to $1.9 trillion in travel spend.
Source: The Travel Industry Turned Upside Down Report
The pandemic hit business trips harder than leisure.
According to a report, 2020 projected leisure trips to drop by 24%. However, business trips were set to go down by as much as 60%.
From March to September 2020, travel spending for international and domestic business travelers in the United States went down by 77% compared to the year before. That’s a total loss of $162 billion for the US economy.
Source: Getting Back to Business Report
Business travel spending fell from 26% down to 14% in the US.
Before the pandemic hit, business travel spending was responsible for 26% of total traveling spend in the US.
However, by the end of 2021, that percentage dropped to 14%.
At the end of 2021, business travel spending remained at just 41% of 2019’s total spending.
Source: US Travel
Post-pandemic business travel statistics
Business travel is poised to make a return now that Covid-19 restrictions are being eased. But what will a business trip look like in the coming months and years?
These business travel statistics are for corporate travelers that want to see where the industry is headed. Can they expect more business trips? Or will corporate travel managers have to pull back on corporate travel spending?
62% of companies are optimistic that the business travel market will recover in the next 6 months.
Companies are slowly thinking about the return of business trips. In an August 2020 survey, 62% of IATA corporate-level survey respondents were expecting the business travel market to recover in the next six months.
However, this is down from 92% back in June of the same year.
At the time of the survey, 60% of respondents suspended all non-essential travel. 16% suspended all non-essential international travel. 9% suspended all travel. 3% suspended all international travel. 6% only suspended international travel to risky countries.
Source: The Travel Industry Turned Upside Down Report
By 2026 the global business market is expected to reach $791.9 billion.
The global business market is expected to reach $791.9 billion by 2026. The US market is expected to reach $231.4 billion by then while China will be at $48.8 billion.
Meanwhile, Japan is expected to grow at 2.2% while Canada will be at 3.1%. Germany is forecast to grow at 2.4%.
Source: ReportLinker
Social distancing could cause a spike in airfares by 54%.
According to the airline industry group IATA, pandemic-related measures such as leaving the middle seat of an airplane empty for social distancing can cause a spike of 54% in airfares.
And to make things worse, raising airfare by 54% doesn’t even guarantee profitability.
Source: Forbes
Business travel statistics sources
- National
- Sleep Junkie
- US Travel
- Forbes
- Motus
Conclusion
That wraps up our look at business travel statistics.
Global business travel is slowly making a comeback after the Covid-pandemic, however, with social distancing restrictions on planes, most business travelers expect a hike in ticket prices at some point.
If you’ve enjoyed reading through our business travel statistics post, then check our our other stat roundups:
