BCD Travel survey reveals that the top three worries for future travel are around quarantine measures, social distancing and cleanliness

UTRECHT, The Netherlands, May 28, 2020 – Business travelers are most concerned about quarantine measures after travel, followed by social distancing and cleanliness of their environment during trips, according to a recent survey of 1,260 business travelers worldwide. Leading travel management company BCD Travel conducted the survey from May 4-11, 2020 to explore the impact of COVID-19 on business travelers and to better understand their needs when travel resumes.

COVID-19 seriously impacted business travel: 76% of the survey respondents reported all business travel being suspended in their companies, while 23% said only essential travel was preserved. 7 in 10 had business trips planned during the time that COVID-19 started affecting their region. Of those trips, 67% were cancelled or postponed, 30% shifted to virtual meetings, and only 3% still took place.

When asked about their preferred communication channels about new policies or actions from their travel departments when travel resumes:

• 92% reported email as their preferred channel;
• 52% prefer their corporate intranet or portal;
• 43% prefer messaging via their mobile travel app, e.g. TripSource

Business travelers shared their views on various measures by travel suppliers to ensure safe travel in the future:

• Among the measures by airports and airlines, 9 in 10 rated frequent enhanced disinfection as extremely or very important, followed by new boarding procedures and empty seats on airplanes to accommodate social distancing.
• When evaluating measures by hotels, enhanced cleaning was leading the list, as 8 in 10 rated it extremely or very important. It is followed by online check-in and digital room key, and the use of mandatory masks by hotel guests and employees.
• When asked about regulatory measures, the use of contactless payment systems (67%) and infrared cameras to measure body temperature (58%) were rated as most important.

“These recent findings on traveler expectations help navigate the new future of business travel,” said Mike Janssen, Global Chief Operating Officer and Chief Commercial Officer for BCD Travel. “Incorporating travelers’ priorities for health and safety measures into sourcing strategies is key. For the time being, services that can ensure safer travel will replace price as the deciding factor for travel managers. In addition, delivering the right information at the right time will help travelers’ peace of mind as they start getting back on the road.”

You can find more survey details in this infographic.