The business sector in Australia has driven the resurgence in both travel and events in 2022 as it resumed face-to-face meetings, conferences, and saw a return to critical networking activity. Tom Walley (pictured), global managing director at Corporate Traveller, the flagship SME travel management division of Flight Centre, says the 2022 travel recovery is paving the way for emerging trends in both business and travel and offers seven forecasts for the Australian market in 2023 and beyond. Walley says Flight Centre’s corporate divisions, including Corporate Traveller, recovered healthily in the 2022 financial year, outperforming the industry’s time to value recovery and with transaction volumes having returned to circa 90% of pre-Covid levels. “From next year, I’m forecasting the business travel industry will continue capitalising on its post-Covid growth and success as businesses and their employees gain more confidence to return to the office and the skies, with the travel journey becoming more digitised and new industry partnerships emerging to improve and expand the choices available to travellers.” Walley analysed emerging global trends, new travel habits among Corporate Traveller customers, and explored new technologies to forecast seven trends in Australian business to emerge in 2023:
- Domestic travel costs will decrease while international costs will remain high until Chinese carriers return. Domestic travel costs in the US have started to plateau and fall, and Walley expects the same to occur in Australia next year. Rex Airlines has been helping by providing more Golden Triangle flights, increasing domestic competition. More significant, however, is an anticipated fall in international travel costs. Walley predicts Chinese carriers will return in the first half of 2023, bringing competition back to the market and flight capacity back to circa 90% of pre-Covid levels by mid-2023. As a result, the cost of Australia-Europe and Asia routes will decrease, while Australia-US routes will be slower to fall. Walley expects more hotel and car rental capacity to increase early next year.
- Middle management will return to the skies. Through 2020 and 2021, business directors and essential workers have been doing most of the travelling, as businesses travelled only for essential reasons. Walley expects middle management to make a strong travel comeback next year.
- Businesses will book travel further in advance amid easing infection and restriction fears. A Global Business Travel Association survey in October 2022 found that four per cent of business travellers would limit or cancel their travel next year due to Covid risks. Walley says Australian businesses will also no longer regard Covid as a top travel concern. Fears of infection risks and government restrictions will continue to drop. As a result, more businesses will book their travel well in advance. “We are beginning to see businesses booking travel 40 days in advance at Corporate Traveller – from 30 days during the height of the pandemic – as a result of improved confidence and a way to reduce travel costs,” says Walley.
- ‘Work from anywhere’ policies will increase. As the tight labour market continues, Walley predicts more companies will offer ‘work from anywhere’ policies to retain people. This will motivate more executives to take working holidays. Travelling to meet and build rapport with other team members will be offered by businesses to improve employee relationships, morale, and retention. One company doing this well is eCommerce platform Shopify, which offers remote working with programs that foster in-person connection and team building. Its ‘Destination90’ program allows staff to work from any location for 90 consecutive days and encourages them to meet and work with other Shopify teams face-to-face in other cities.
- The travel journey will become more digitised. We will be hearing ‘digital ID’ more frequently in 2023 in the move to protect individual identities and to help create digital, seamless services – including travel. Incoming passenger declaration cards have moved online this year, and Walley forecasts passports will be next in line to becoming digitised.
- Travel providers will tap into the gig economy.Walley expects more travel providers to draw on the gig economy for selected services. For instance, hotels will replace in-house dining options through food delivery partnerships, such as UberEats. The Little National Hotel chain, for instance, has replaced in-house dining with an UberEats partnership. Rooms are equipped with tablets, allowing guests to order in-room dining options.
- More workers will return to offices, but hybrid arrangements will remain. Office occupancy rates in major cities lifted slightly in October to an average of 63%. Walley anticipates occupancy rates will continue to grow but fluctuate in 2023, as more businesses return to the office full-time. Flight Centre itself has had such a strong return to the office this year it has introduced hotdesking to house all returning employees.
