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Corporate travel: Nearly four in 10 budgets to rise for 2025
Despite budget constraints, 38.5% of corporate travel budgets are set to increase in 2025, aligning with a steady recovery in business travel activities and expectations of returning to pre-2019 levels by year's end. The article Corporate travel: Nearly four in 10 budgets to rise for 2025 first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.
New insight from Business Travel Show Europe has revealed that nearly four in 10 (38.5%) corporate travel budgets will rise in 2025. This is down compared to last year when half of respondents claimed they would have more money to spend. However, the number of budgets that will either increase or stay the same is on par with 2024 figures (75% compared to 78.5%).
70% of the 163 corporate travel and procurement professionals, EAs and PAs polled at the end of last year also revealed they expect their organisation’s business travel activity to return to 2019 levels by the end of this year.
60% of organisations were already back to pre-Covid travel by the end of last year. 11.6% don’t believe they ever will. Why? Half of them are under pressure to cut costs. 15% are feeling the heat to be more sustainable – a massive drop from last year’s 43.8%. 10% are using VC technology more. And 5% each claim it is due to rising costs and the pressure to meet CSRD reporting requirements, which were phased in in 2024.
Respondents were asked:
Will your 2025 travel budget….
| 2024/2025 | 2023/2024 | |
| Increase | 38.5% | 50.9% |
| Stay the same | 36.5% | 28.6% |
| Decrease | 17.9% | 17.7% |
| I don’t know | 8.1% | 2.8% |
| 100% | 100% |
When do you expect your organisation’s business travel activity to return to 2019 levels?
| 2024/2025 | ||
| It already has returned to 2019 levels | 60.2% | |
| (Pre-2024) | (32.4%) | |
| (In 2024) | (27.8%) | |
| It will this year | 9.8% | |
| Maybe, but not this year | 13.3% | |
| No, and it’s unlikely to | 11.6% | |
| I don’t know | 5.2% | |
| 100% |
Of those who answered, ‘no and it’s unlikely to’, they attributed this to the following:
| 2024/2025 | 2023/2024 | |
| Pressure to reduce costs | 50% | 31.2% |
| Pressure to be more sustainable / to reduce carbon emissions | 15% | 43.8% |
| Increase on reliance on VC technology | 10% | |
| Pressure to meet sustainability reporting targets for CSRD | 5% | |
| Rising costs | 5% | |
| Ongoing travel restrictions | 12.5% | |
| Traveller reluctance | 6.3% |
BTN Group Executive Vice President Louis Magliaro says: “Almost four in 10 corporate travel budgets will rise this year despite the pressure travel managers are under to cut costs. This is really positive news and in line with the expected increase in trip volumes that we are hearing about. We fully expect the rise in costs that we witnessed last year to stabilise throughout 2025 taking more heat off travel managers and allowing them to focus on travellers and ROI.
“It will be critical to work with the right TMCs, suppliers and technology suites to squeeze every bit of value they can from their budgets, while being mindful of the pressures to be more sustainable and their obligations for traveller safety, compliance and reporting.
“Business Travel Show Europe returns to London from 25-26 June and we’re here to help – we have all the suppliers, content and connections to support travel managers throughout Europe to establish and refine their travel programmes no matter what stage they are at.”
163 corporate travel and procurement professionals, EAs and PAs voted in November and December 2024. 80% of these were travel managers, 17% in procurement and 3% EAs/PAs. The geographical split was UK – 39%, Europe – 46%, RoW – 15%.
Business Travel Show Europe returns to ExCeL London from 25-26 June 2025 and will run alongside TravelTech Show and The Meetings Show to bring together over 700 qualified buyers and 200 exhibitors for high-level, in-person networking and a premium conference programme. Registration for the show’s will open in March 2025.
The article Corporate travel: Nearly four in 10 budgets to rise for 2025 first appeared in TravelDailyNews International.
