The travel industry is in dire need of a comeback. Business travel has been on the decline for decades, and many companies are struggling to keep up with increased competition from online booking sites like Expedia and Booking.com.
The industry leaders press the need for business travel comeback is a topic that discusses how industry leaders are pushing for the return of business travel. American Airlines has shown interest in this idea, and has plans to grow its business travel by 25%. Read more in detail here: american airlines.
A group of business executives and members of the travel industry banded together to argue for the revival of business travel, meetings, exhibits, and events.
At the National Press Club, representatives from the Let’s Meet There Coalition, the United States Travel Association, and the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance, as well as CLEAR, delivered a message highlighting the differences between professional in-person gatherings and other “large gatherings.”
ADVERTISING
The organization highlighted hundreds of previous events and exhibits that were handled safely, as well as tools and practices that may assist these events happen now and in the future.
Business travel is critical to the wider recovery of the US economy, according to industry experts, as the sector lags in its comeback.
What’s Hot Right Now
According to Tourism Economics, corporate travel produced $270 billion in direct travel expenditure in 2019 and supported 4 million employment in the United States. By 2020, the industry will have shrunk by 68 percent. If no effort is taken to assist business travel recover, it will take three years to return to pre-pandemic levels, according to projections.
Toursim Economics recently released fresh research that found a link between business travel and corporate performance for 14 sectors over the last 26 years, revealing that companies earn $1.60 in corporate profits for every dollar spent on business travel.
Leaders also provided evidence for the safety of air travel, noting that professional meetings and exhibitions are structured events held in controlled environments, allowing for maximum health and safety measures to protect attendees, as demonstrated by an analysis by Ohio State University healthcare scientists.
Due to the tiered approach to mitigation measures, scientific modeling by the Exhibitions & Conferences Alliance (ECA) and Epistemix has demonstrated that in-person professional meetings and events offer a near-zero (0.001%) risk of COVID-19 transmission to attendees—even for major events.
Business travelers were also more likely to get vaccinated, according to the group’s study. According to Destination Analysts, 78 percent of Americans who traveled for business in the previous two years were immunized, compared to 72 percent of all Americans.
CLEAR Health Pass, a tool that allows participants and staff to submit and verify their health statuses at events, makes these events feasible.
“Every piece of evidence we’re seeing from the scientific and academic community tells us that, with the right practices in place, the traveling workforce and event organizers can get back to the business of reconnecting with clients and colleagues,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the United States Travel Association. “In the end, the business community will push a return to business travel, bringing the economy back to a more normal state.”
Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics business; John Cordier, CEO and co-founder, Epistemix Inc.; Hervé Sedky, chair of the board, ECA and president and CEO, Emerald; and Caryn Seidman-Becker, co-founder, chairman, and CEO, CLEAR were among those in attendance.
