Seventy Percent of Business Travel Will Return by 2021

For weeks, the effects of the pandemic led the world to believe that business travel would disappear forever. Zoom, Skype, Google Hangouts and other digital applications replaced physical meetings without too much trouble, while offering, according to various analyses, greater efficiency in the use of time. However, after many of the most affected countries by COVID-19 entered the new normal, what seemed like a one-way street two months ago is not so much the case today. According to Jo Sully, Asia-Pacific Regional Manager for American Express Global Business Travel, business meetings will gradually return to their pre-pandemic behavior. “We predict that by 2021, 60 to 70 percent of business travel will return,” Sully told Reuters. “People will be traveling again for meetings.”

In this new context, companies are offering services adapted to the new reality. This is the case of BCD Travel, one of the giants in the industry, which has launched a new platform that updates the travel requirements of each country in real time to reduce traveler risks. Data such as the quarantine time required by a country to receive visitors, the mandatory use of masks and hotel or transportation policies appear on the screens of those travelers who contract BCD Travel’s Informed Traveler service, which bases its reports on more than 800 sources. “This is a comprehensive global initiative aimed at helping travelers, travel managers and agents make smart decisions amid an ever-changing landscape of rules, laws and procedures,” BCD Travel said in a statement.

BCD Travel’s program will be launched in phases. The first phase, now available, will consist of an information center on COVID-19, as well as information on the destination to be visited and the requirements of the destination country. The second phase, which will be available in August, will offer more specific and customized information depending on the client's needs. BCD Travel's program joins similar initiatives launched by companies such as American Express Global Business Travel, Deem and Travel Perk, which have also included COVID-19 risk management platforms.

In Mexico, air traffic has begun to grow after the worst months in the history of commercial aviation in terms of travelers. According to the North Central Airport Group (OMA), in June, passenger flow dropped 86.4 percent compared to the same period last year. The Southeast Airport Group (ASURI) shows similar numbers. According to this airport group, passenger flow at its airports fell by 90.4 percent in June compared to the same period in 2019. Meanwhile, the Pacific Airport Group (GAP), which controls 12 terminals in Mexico, said passenger traffic fell by 76.8 percent in June 2020 compared to the same month in 2019.