Reuters-Sydney Employers will spend more on business travel in 2023 than they did before the pandemic, a senior executive at CWT said Tuesday.
“Even 2022, this calendar year, will be reduced to some degree,” CWT Chief Customer Officer Nick Vournakis stated. “I don’t think we’ll compare years till 2024.”
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He didn’t disclose client budget projections for 2023 but said inflation will have a big impact on travel spending next year.
CWT and the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) project airfares will rise 8.5%, hotel rates by 8.2%, and ground transportation by 6.8% in 2023 as an industry hampered by manpower shortages and rising input costs recovers from pandemic lows.
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“We continue to see more companies plan for growth in their travel budgets,” Vournakis said, noting that meetings and events are in high demand.
“I haven’t seen anyone unduly afraid of recession in their 2023 travel plans,” he said.
Vournakis also said that CWT’s business has returned to about two-thirds of what it was before the pandemic. By the end of the year, it should reach 70%, which is a little earlier than the GBTA’s latest prediction for a full recovery in 2026.
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