Optimism in the global business travel sector has dropped more than half of this year, according to a report published by the Global Business Travel Association.
The positive feeling increased from 67% in November 2024 to 31% in April 2025, according to the report Who questioned more than 900 business professionals on the affect of prices, tightened border policies and other American government policies have announced this year.
More than one in four responders in Canada, the United States and Europe, said they felt “pessimistic” or “very pessimistic” about the industry’s prospects this year.
However, 40% of those questioned said they felt neither positive nor negative.
“Since I have been in my role for four years, I have not seen this level of uncertainty,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO of the association CNBC trip Tuesday.
The survey has shown that almost 30% of corporate travel buyers plan that their business would reduce employee travel this year, while some 20% said they were not sure, he showed.
“They are not even confident enough to be able to say that everything will be fine or that everything will be fine,” she said.
Some 27% of respondents also declared to expect commercial travel expenses to also decrease.
Long -term concerns
A third of business travel buyers have said that their companies have changed or plan to change policies concerning travel to or from the United States, according to the report.
Some 6% said their companies had moved to the United States events in another country.
“From the point of view of the Apac, and certainly from a European point of view, perhaps even Latam, there is the possibility of being at the origin of the place where these meetings take place,” said Neufang. “There are many other opportunities to be a winner in this commercial game.”
Business professionals have expressed several concerns about the long -term impact potential caused by Trump administration decisions this year, led by concerns about commercial travel costs (54%) and problems with problems (46%).
The world’s air declines, however, are slightly decreasing – around $ 17, or 2.2% since the start of the year – according to FCM Consulting, a division of the Travel Travel Travel Company.
Not all “misfortune and sadness”
However, the global business travel market is still on the right track to exceed $ 1.6 billion by the end of 2025, said Neufang.
However, she said that it was only “if the last 100 days do not have a negative impact everywhere”.
By 2028, the Global Business Travel Association is expecting this number to cross the 2 dollar billion mark, she said. She noted that although business travel volumes have not returned to pre-countryic levels, business travel expenses are completely recovered in 2024, partly following inflation.
But she said that the trade war initiated by the Trump administration could explain new business trips.
“In times of commercial wars, business trips can actually increase for at least one time of time-so that new partners are found (and) new markets to build,” she said. “You lose a client, you have to find another one. So I think that this perspective does not mean all the misfortune for us.”
However, if the prices remain high, “there will certainly be an impact on American trips … But I think that Europe, Asia, Europe in Asia, Asia in Europe. I think that anywhere in Africa, all this is probably good.”
Leisure trips to the United States fell in 2025. International spending on visitors should drop by 4.7% compared to 2024, which represents some $ 8.5 billion for the American travel industry, in one year, income had once increased.
– Bella Stoddart of CNBC contributed to this report.