Business travel industry in the USA

It is a critical moment for the business travel industry. Before the COVID-19
pandemic, global business tourism spending was thriving, with the U.S. and China
being the two biggest markets. Hit hard by the health crisis, corporate travel will
need time to adjust to a new normal.
Travel policies are changing according to the current scenario. Apart from
considering new health and safety guidelines, the need for more flexible bookings
is also an important topic, as prices of several business travel services are expected
to change drastically during the pandemic.
In a gradual recovery dictated by proximity, companies are planning to
resume domestic trips first, while interest in travel digitization is rising. However,
as face-to-face meetings are considered a key element in this market, a phased rise
in hybrid solutions seems more likely than a complete shift to virtual events.
The travel and tourism industry is one of the largest industries in the United
States. Business travel falls under this umbrella and refers to trips taken for the
purpose of work and not for leisure, recreation, or entertainment. Many companies
take part in business travel each year, but the leading company by booked air
volume in the United States in 2019 was Deloitte, with nearly 600 million U.S.
dollars booked, just ahead of tech companies like Amazon and IBM.
Business travel makes up a sizable portion of the travel and tourism industry
in the Unites States. In 2019, it made up 30 percent of total spending in the U.S.
travel market. As a result, this sector also provides a source of employment for
many people, and the number of jobs supported by business travel in the United
States was over 2.5 million in 2019. Additionally, business travel can be broken
down into domestic and international travel. The number of domestic business
trips in the United States was relatively stable over the last decade at around 450
million trips every year until 2020, when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
prevented normal travel and caused the number of total trips to drop significantly,
though they were predicted to rise again in the following years. When looking at
international travel, the number of overseas business tourist arrivals was over five
million in 2019, though the impact of COVID-19 on this number was significant in
2020.
As normal travel was not possible in 2020 due to COVID-19, the business
travel industry in the U.S. took a significant hit. Domestic business travel spending
in the U.S. reached a low of 131 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, a decrease of 160
billion U.S. dollars from the previous year. Though this number is expected to
increase again by 2024, it is not expected to fully recover to the level of spending
prior to COVID-19 for some time. During a worldwide poll taken in February
2021 to determine if companies are planning to resume travel , only 20 percent of
company respondents planned to resume travel to the U.S. in the next one to three
months, with the majority remaining unsure. Meanwhile, stay-at-home measures
have led to a rise in virtual meetings. However, a 2020 survey on public preference
in the U.S. for in-person vs. hybrid meetings indicated that only 22 percent of
respondents either preferred or strongly preferred hybrid meetings.