European corporate travel budgets expected to rise in 2025

Activity to return to pre-pandemic levels
2025-02-02
/
/ New Delhi
European corporate travel budgets expected to rise in 2025

Business travel in Europe is set to exceed 2019 levels this year (Photo: India Outbound)

Almost five years after it was decimated by the Covid-19 pandemic, business travel is expected to recover to the pre-pandemic levels this year as about 40 pc companies say their travel budgets to exceed 2019 levels in 2025.
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Despite budget constraints, nearly 38.5 pc of corporate travel budgets in Europe 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.

According to a report prepared by Business Travel Show Europe, about 75 pc of corporate travel budgets will either increase or stay the same as in 2024.

The report adds that about 70 pc 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.

It says that 60 pc of organisations were already back to pre-Covid travel by the end of last year. However, a non-negligible share of 11.6 pc of the companies say that they don’t believe they ever will recover to the pre-pandemic levels as they are under pressure to cut costs, while another 15 pc are feeling the heat to be more sustainable. Also, about 10 pc are using video conferencing technology more to curtail travel.

“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,’’ says Louis Magliaro, Executive Vice President, BTN Group.

Louis Magliaro

“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 June 25-26 and we are 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,” Magliaro adds.

The report adds that the survey was based on responses by 163 corporate travel and procurement professionals, EAs and PAs in November and December 2024. While 80 pc of these were travel managers, 17 pc in procurement and 3pc EAs/PAs. The United Kingdom accounted for 39 pc of respondents, rest of Europe for 46 pc and 15 pc were from other parts of the world.

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