Business travel budgets rising as firms use 2019 as spending benchmark -CWT

CWT International

06/09/2022 05:55

By Jamie Freed
    SYDNEY, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Business travel budgets are
poised to rise in 2023 as companies  benchmark against
pre-pandemic levels of travel spending despite growing
uncertainty over the economic outlook, a senior executive at
global corporate travel agency CWT said on Tuesday.
    "Even 2022, this calendar year, is going to be discounted to
some degree," CWT Chief Customer Officer Nick Vournakis said in
an interview, noting COVID-19 restrictions in some regions
impeded travel. "I don't think we're going to get back to a
comparison of year over year until we're in 2024."
    He did not provide details of client budget forecasts for
2023 but said businesses recognised that inflation would be a
key factor in travel spending next year.
    CWT and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) last
month said airfares are expected to rise by 8.5%, hotel rates by
8.2% and ground transportation by 6.8% in 2023 as an industry
hit by labour shortages and input cost increases rebounds from
pandemic lows.
    "If you're looking at it from a pure financial perspective,
I think what we continue to see is more and more corporates
budgeting for growth in their travel," Vournakis said, citing
strong demand for meetings and events. 
    "I haven't seen anyone overly wary with regards to recession
in how they are travel planning for 2023," he added.
    CWT's business has returned to nearly two-thirds of
pre-pandemic levels and should reach close to 70% by the end of
the year, with a full recovery expected by the end of 2025,
Vournakis said, slightly ahead of GBTA's latest forecast for a
2026 recovery.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2ZR2AH

 (Reporting by Jamie Freed. Editing by Gerry Doyle)
 ((Jamie.Freed@thomsonreuters.com;))