Duty of care lead as the top travel program priority for travel managers surveyed in 2020-2021. A similar picture emerges for traveler satisfaction and wellbeing whose importance remains high. The BCD Travel Research & Innovation Team surveyed buyers on four occasions to learn what’s top of mind for them as they prepare for travel’s recovery. The findings were collected from surveys in January 2020 (79 responses), April 2020 (125 responses), September 2020 (88 responses) and April 2021 (101 responses).
On a priority scale of 1 to 5, travel buyers rated duty of care 4.7 in April 2021. Traveler satisfaction was rated 4.5 in April 2021. The scores have been consistently high over two years.
In addition to duty of care and traveler satisfaction, the only travel program priority that recovered its pre-pandemic level of importance was travel sustainability, which returned to its pre-pandemic level of importance, with a score of 3.7. Sustainability fell to a 2.7 rating in April 2020 and inched its way to 3.3 in September 2020 before recovering this year in April. Other program priorities, including policy compliance and cost control, waivered in importance with buyers during the timeframe, but saw modest recoveries.