by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 2:10 PM ET, Wed June 14, 2023
The fifth annual SAP Concur Global Business Travel Survey highlights how business travelers around the world are eager to get back to traveling for work, but that many feel there aren’t equal opportunities to do so.
The survey asked 3,850 business travelers across twenty-five different countries for their biggest concerns, fears and whether or not they’re ready to travel for work.
Business Travelers Don’t Have Equal Opportunities to Travel
The large majority of travelers (at 94 percent) are willing to travel for work within the next year, but almost two-thirds of respondents (62 percent) said that they haven’t had an equal opportunity to do so. For business travelers from the U.S., this is even higher, at 72 percent.
Around 77 percent of remote workers also agree that their job format impedes their opportunity to travel for work. Of these, 16 percent said this was because they were a parent or guardian, and 19 percent said they were most likely to decline a travel opportunity due to childcare.
All who believe they’ve been passed over for travel opportunities mainly attributed this inequality to their age, accent, gender, physical appearance or race (all above 20 percent).
Remote workers seem to have the opposite issue: 50 percent of all remote workers say they’re traveling more than they’d like. By comparison, only 37 percent of hybrid workers and 29 percent of in-office workers agree they’re traveling more than they want to.
Health and Safety Are Still the Biggest Travel Concerns
Business travelers agree (44 percent) that health and safety is the biggest threat to business travel. Other answers were lower, but still top-of-mind for a good number of travelers, including international or local conflicts (34 percent), inflation (34 percent), budget cuts or travel freezes (31 percent) and remote work or virtual meetings (28 percent).
Over half of all business travelers who had traveled in the past year had to change their accommodations because they felt unsafe (53 percent). In the U.S., this number is 70 percent. The largest groups that are experiencing this are Gen Z and Millennials (64 percent and 61 percent, respectively), as well as members of the LGBTQ+ community (82 percent).
All of these groups reported harassment, derogatory language, being ignored at their accommodations and other serious issues while traveling.
Members of the LGBTQ+ community face distinct challenges when traveling for business. Forty-five percent would decline a travel opportunity due to fears surrounding traveling to a certain destination, while 90 percent have reported hiding their sexual identity while traveling for business, mostly for safety and privacy, or because of anti-LGBTQ laws in the region.
Safety and health are the two main concerns that urge travelers to turn down their business trip opportunities.
Inflation is Changing Business Travel
Additionally, business travelers have noticed budget cuts (40 percent), reduced overnight trips (32 percent), lower-quality accommodations (31 percent) and a push to find lower fares (31 percent). These percentages are higher for business travelers from the U.S.
The focus on saving money could be putting business travelers at risk, as many have reported feeling unsafe and changing their chosen accommodation during their trip.
Businesses should keep their travelers’ needs in mind, taking into account opportunities for bleisure travel, their travel preferences, finding sustainable accommodations and more.
Business Travel: Challenging for Everyone
Business travel seems challenging for everyone right now, from companies struggling to encourage business trips during inflation to travelers concerned about their personal safety and equal opportunities for travel.
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