The four -year ramp of Business Travel, the pandemic, was on the right track to continue this year, but the American trade war has scrambled these prospects.
“The big word is uncertainty,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO of the Global Business Travel Association, who had Forecasts global expenses to increase At 1.64 billion of dollars in 2025, compared to 1.48 dollars billion expected in 2024. The estimated total of last year, if the preliminary data remained, would mark the first time that the sector exceeded its pre-cook levels.
But pessimism has increased sharply in the middle of the deep cuts of President Donald Trump on the government’s workforce and a vertiginous range of prices. Now, around 29% of American managers of corporate travel and an equal share abroad expect business travel this year due to the actions of the government, according to a GBTA recent survey. Outdoor withdrawals could reduce business trips to 22%, according to the group.
Industry experts warn that embittered expectations so far have not resulted in a collapse of reservations, despite cooler signs of demand.
Business Travel “has not fallen from a cliff,” said Jonathan Kletzel, a leader in travel, transport and logistics of the PWC consulting firm. “He is definitely limited at the moment, but will people stop traveling?” Probably not. If you are a heavy sales organization and you are not on the market to meet your customers, your competitors are. ”
However, growing concerns about business trips coincide with the warnings of business leaders that US trade policies have injected new uncertainty into an economy that just months ago I looked on the right track to rely on his strengths.
CEO of Delta Air Lines Ed Bastian said to CNBC Last month, the carrier had to verify his expectations on what announced as the “best exercise in our history”. Travel demand increased by around 10% at the start of the year, but has since slowed down, he said, partly because of companies rethinking business trips and federal labor reductions. Other airlines have reported similar concernsIn some cases, adjusting their growth plans or reducing reduction capacity.
Hotel operators and booking platforms also feel. Expedia said Friday that the demand for American travel is cooled. Marriott, Hyatt and Hilton have each reduced their financial forecasts in recent weeks, the first of these hotel giants warning investors of “an expected continuation of the drop in the US government’s demand”.
From the retirement office, Trump supervised mass fire and expense reductions through federal bureaucracyWith numerous changes led by the project of the Department of Efficiency of the Ministry of Efficiency of the Ministry of Elon Musk government. While some of the cuts were interrupted in court, travel bookers for government entrepreneurs resisted a few hectic months.
Global Travel Associates, a Washington agency, in the DC region, which mainly serves government entrepreneurs, said travel sales had slipped 20% in the first quarter. Several had funding linked to the American agency for international development, which The Trump administration emptied this springAnd these accounts dropped from 75% to 90%, said director general Tom Ollinger.
Some of GTA customers have only purchased refundable plane tickets; Others have canceled the scheduled or interrupted meetings of new travel plans indefinitely, he said. In some cases, people with long -term assignments abroad have been invited to drop everything and return to the base of the home. “The organization provided them one -way tickets to come back,” said Ollinger.
“Government groups do not occur,” said Jan Freitag, national director of market analysis of the Costar real estate data company. But many business meetings always take place, and although individual business trips are a little softer, “it could simply be people who do not reserve as much in advance,” he said.
However, Freitag warned: “If (more) the rates struck and companies have less sense where their costs take place, they begin to look for costs. And the easiest place to control costs is travel and training. ”
Navan, a business travel management service based in Palo Alto, California, said reservations were underway during the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2024, despite a slight slowdown in April.
“There is certainly this feeling of waiting for another shoe to fall,” said Rich Liu, CEO of Navan de Travel. While the CEOs tell him that they “feel pressure” of new import taxes and other politics movements, “they still have companies to manage,” said Liu.
Individual business travelers seem to be anxious. The Squaremouth online travel insurance comparison site has seen an annual overvoltage of 223% in research for “Cancel for work reasons” Last month, with the purchases of these policies jumping 53%.
“It tells us that travelers feel uncomfortable,” said Rupa Mehta, CEO of Squaremouth. “In an uncertain economic period, they want to understand the cost and value of flexible coverage before committing.”
Current perspectives are “a mixed bag,” said Lorraine Sileo, founder of Phocuswright, a worldwide travel firm. Currently, “it seems that leisure trips will be more affected than business trips,” she said, adding that “it will take more time to companies to feel the pinch of an economic slowdown” than for holidaymakers.
“We have to adopt a waiting approach” to see how business trips is revealed, said Sileo, “but there are indications that it will be a slow year for all types of trips to the American market in 2025.”