In a guest post for Business Travel News, BCD Travel vice president Amy Dalton said rising geopolitical concerns, changing consumer and corporate values—such as increased focus on carbon footprints, growing costs, and supply-chain issues will force a rethink of how businesses operate in the future.
Rethink and reset
The rethink means making companies more resilient through creative and diversified approaches to supply, production and consumption – and finding ways to bring production back closer to the point of consumption. We may see hiked prices, reduced investments, labor shortages and broader digital connectivity as outcomes. It could all add up to a re-positioning of economic benefits away from emerging markets and back to the advanced economies. A change to any of these, Dalton said, can affect business travel volumes and patterns and the ease of travel between countries. Her sentiments echo the findings in BCD Travel’s recently published 2022 Business Travel Trends report on eight areas that will affect travel managers and travelers this year.
What could it mean for travelers? Tougher trips. Dalton said travelers will find international travel more complex and will need extra support from their companies to navigate the complexity.
Read the full article here.
Take action now
Dalton urged travel managers and procurement professionals to reevaluate their programs and consider how larger forces at play in the world could influence their strategy. Her prescription:
- Continuously monitor and take action on travel data intelligence
- Ensure adequate support for international travel
- Evaluate and adjust supplier agreements as needed
There’s still much we don’t know about how the globalization reset will affect the business travel community, Dalton said. She advised travel managers and procurement professionals to work with travel suppliers that have global networks supported by local operations to deliver market-level expertise.
For questions about steps you can take now to future-fit your program, talk to your program manager. Not a BCD client? Contact us.
2022 top 8 business travel trends
The last two years have also been a time for reflection, leading to a refocus on new priorities for the future. What does this refocus mean for travel?
We’ve identified a short list of trends which we think will come to resonate with both travel managers and travelers during 2022.
