Travel Buyers still favouring price over luxury

12 February 2020
In January 2020 research showed that the corporate travel budget was increasing, 41% of 114 corporate travel buyers polled at last year’s BTS forecasted the same.
 
There were also expectations that the cost of travel would increase with nearly 50% of those asked agreeing that they expect to see a rise in their expenditure, especially as over 52% expected to be managing more trips throughout the coming months.
 
However travel buyers are increasingly shifting air and rail bookings from business to economy in order to help bolster the bottom line.

Despite travel budgets increasing on average by 4%, travel management are still favouring low cost/less flexible fares as companies look at ways to reduce their international corporate spend. As the economy improves clients still remain focused on reducing their travel expenditure as they seek to manage costs and contribute to organisational profitability.

Advance purchase economy fares saw the biggest increase with 35% of buyers switching from business fares, while restrictive economy fares saw a modest increase of 8%.

With business travellers accounting for up to 75% of airline profits this cannot be ignored and a knock-on effect to this is that we are now seeing more airlines around the world rushing to provide premium economy seating. Perfect for those corporate travellers that don’t want the expense of business class and prefer a little more comfort and space than normal economy provides.
 
Going forward this may prove beneficial for all, corporate companies are able to cut their costs, whilst offering a premium choice to their travellers and airlines with premium seating will be highly sort after, increasing their flow of corporate clients.
 
Corporates continue to refocus on their bottom line and acknowledge that cost-effective corporate travel is a contributory factor to a healthy cost base.
 
Please get in touch should you need any advice or wish to discuss your future travel program. [email protected]