The rapid spread of the new COVID-19 variant is the latest wrinkle in the road to recovery for the business travel industry. For those who serve the corporate traveler such as hotels and meeting space facilities, they aren’t so quick to introduce new restrictions or requirements this time around.
The Global Business Travel Association Survey
GBTA is the world’s largest business travel association. In a membership survey of global travel buyers, suppliers, and industry stakeholders, it was clear that the business travel industry is taking a very different and more informed approach to policy changes.
Travelers Are Better Prepared
Corporate travelers are now better equipped since companies have created clear policies and processes to guide their traveling employees. Polices encourage minimal risk and provide practical guidelines such as limiting the number of passengers in a single vehicle. Many also suggest ordering larger vehicles from ground transportation providers for social distancing or asking the car service to provide additional cars.
Less Safety Concerns
The omicron variant has caused less concern around the safety of resuming corporate travel according to the survey. More than half of the survey respondents reported their company is unlikely to introduce new safety restrictions due to the omicron variant based on the current sentiment around the COVID-19 variant
Passenger Counts Near Pre-Pandemic
On a November 22, 2021 – 1.96 million passengers flew. This compares to 2.25 million passengers who flew on November 22, 2019 – before COVID-19 arrived. This shows that as the year of 2021 was coming to an end, people were quite comfortable with flying, even in a different environment that has forced us to wear masks and eliminated our beverage and snack service.