It looks like the recovery will take longer than expected for business travel, which is only expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in 2026, not 2024, the Global Business Tourism Association (GBTA) warned on Monday in its 2022 annual report.
The GBTA thus underlines that “while many Covid-related recovery conditions have improved, many macroeconomic conditions have deteriorated rapidly in early 2022”.
In 2019, global business travel spending was $1.4 trillion. They had fallen by more than half in 2020, under the effect of the pandemic, to $661 billion, and had risen only slightly in 2021, to $697 billion.
Asia penalized by China’s “zero Covid” policy
They should reach 933,000 million in 2022 (+33.8%), although with strong differences according to the regions, details the GBTA.
North America led the recovery in 2021, while Western Europe was the only region to see lower spending last year due to the fallout from Covid. “Both regions are expected to experience the strongest recoveries,” the organization said.
Asia-Pacific had seen a strong recovery in 2021, led by China, but “this was reversed in 2022”, due to the “covid zero” policy, and while “other countries in the region opened only slowly”, while the Slower pace of vaccination in Latin America has slowed recovery there.
Source: BFM TV
