Resuming Business Travel: making the world go round again

The impact of the Covid on resort hotels has been temporary and has not fundamentally affected?the business as e move forward, with individual travelers and families aiming to travel as soon as they possibly can. City hotels, however, urban hotels, especially those more focused on business travelers, have been affected in a more “structural” way. In addition to the difficulties and risks involved in traveling, companies and their workers have developed new habits and techniques that make travel less necessary, such as teleworking, virtual meetings, etc.

Fortunately, as we are already seeing in resort hotels, the impact of the vaccination programme and improvements in international coordination is allowing a return to “ business as normal” and the lifting of restrictions. At the same time, this is also allowing an incipient, but consistent, reactivation of business travel according to a recent SAP Concur survey in 25 global markets, which showed that 96% of business travelers would be willing to travel again, and even 65% are “very willing”. ?Other research such as Deloitte Corporate Travel Survey, foresees a recovery of 65-80% of business travel by the 4th quarter of 2022.

We know that business travel will always be necessary, and in many cases is unable to be replaced by other alternatives. 63% of professionals consider travel necessary to achieve their business objectives, and 82% think that face-to-face meetings are more effective than virtual meetings, especially for sales-oriented trips and visiting clients. Contact with people in situ generat creates benefits in terms of internationalization and increased exports, and with ?the MICE industry being such a powerful segment internationally, it requires a return to face-to-face encounters.

Goodbye to the "old business trip"

I am positive that once economic activity gets back to normal, so will business travel. Bur I also believe that many things will have to change to adapt to the new post-Covid environment, the new breed of business travel will be more efficient, more justified, more sustainable, more intensive in new technology and less frequent. But there will also be growth in “bleisure” travel, as more people working remotely will make it easier to extend stays for work reasons. Trends point towards smaller meetings, with a preference for large and open spaces, and hybrid models such as our “workation” program, that allows working while enjoying the most complete experience of a hotel, etc. …. We will have to rethink our priorities, look closely at travel policies, calculate and moderate the environmental impact, yes, but I am sure that business travel will definitely take off again.

At the forefront of Business Travel recovery

Although more focused on the vacation segment, where we are leaders, the business segment as a whole represents, in a normalized year, almost 25% of our total business. In addition, business trips are not only a source of business for tourism companies: they are, above all, an important engine and lever for economic recovery, and I think it is time for a company such as Meliá Hotels International to take the reins and lead the recovery of the segment. That is why we have been the first hotel company to launch a great campaign to promote Business Travel, under the inspiring slogan "Let's make the world go round again".

This is the most ambitious campaign ever launched by MeliaPro, which includes discounts for all the company's urban hotels, benefits for travelers, managers, companies and travel agents, (as it is aimed at to all segments) and useful and easy booking tools, and has also planned a strong boost through Social Networks.

As our campaign says: let's make the world go around again, because together we are unstoppable!