Attention passengers: New SAP Concur research reveals five challenges threatening business travel in 2024

SINGAPORE, Asia Pacific, 19 August 2024 – As global workforces grapple with the disconnect of remote working, efficient business travel is a top priority – offering access to new markets, insights, and development opportunities. However, it comes with complications, as revealed by new SAP Concur research of 3,750 travelers and 600 travel managers across global markets. This includes 850 respondents from the Asia Pacific countries of Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, India, Singapore and Malaysia.

“The research suggests that APAC organisations need to better balance fluid and sometimes conflicting corporate and employee travel needs, stem employee reluctance to travel due to work-life balance concerns, and accommodate growing demands for sustainable travel,” said Sushant Jain, Chief Revenue Officer, Asia Pacific & Japan, Spend Management, SAP. “Measures businesses could take include improving the flexibility of their travel policies, and better harnessing emerging technology like AI to obtain data-based insights to streamline workflows, minimise disruption, cut cost and raise boost employee satisfaction.”

To ensure smooth running and maximise their investments in business travel, business leaders must understand its friction points. The top takeaways from the new research include:

1. The threat of disruption

• About 86% of APAC travelers have been forced to make last-minute changes in the past year because of unexpected delays, cancellations or the need to re-route.
• Travelers have had enough of losing out on their personal time and critical career connections. About 82% opt to add ‘booking buffers’ to the start or end of their journey, or both, incorporating extra time to counteract unexpected schedule changes. This frustrating cycle discourages business travel altogether. To reduce traveler stress, organisations should consider allowing travelers extra turnaround time for each booking, private connecting transport, and adding features to travel management tools to allow easy rebooking when disruptions take place.

2. Reluctance to Travel

• APAC business travelers cite safety (42%) or political or social (36%) concerns about the destination as the most common reasons that would cause them to decline a business trip.
• The trend of combining leisure and business, or bleisure, has gained popularity among business travelers, but recent cost-saving measures by companies threaten this balance. More than 28% of APAC companies are reducing the ability for employees to work remotely, while traveling for pleasure or combining personal travel with business trips.
• While a majority (72%) of APAC business travelers stated that travel is critical for their career advancement, 22% of employees would decline a business trip if they couldn't extend it for personal travel, and 26% would also refuse if they couldn't make adjustments outside of company policy.

3. The toss-up between sustainability and costs

• Over a quarter (28%) of APAC business travelers are willing to decline a business trip due to the environmental impact or the inability to choose sustainable options, while a further 28% claim their company has cut back on paying more on sustainable travel options over the past 12 months.
• Around 31% of APAC travelers say their company prioritises sustainable travel options, but 1 in 3 travel managers globally face difficulty booking travel as they are expected to provide more sustainable travel options without an adequate travel budget.

4. Unequal access to travel opportunities

• Almost three-quarters (72%) of APAC business travelers say that travel is critical for their career advancement – but the same proportion feel they haven’t received equal opportunity to travel compared to their colleagues.
• Staff cite reasons for unequal access such as their level of seniority (22%), age (18%) and gender (10%).

5. The need for AI solutions and education

• Most APAC travelers (95%) are open to using AI-enabled options when arranging travel, but there is a prevailing “wait and see” attitude. Only 6% are comfortable using AI-enabled options currently.
• As much as 90% of APAC business travelers want more company support, including assurances for personal data protection, potential biases, and protection from repercussions if AI-assisted bookings contravene company policy.

“While leaders won’t be able to solve travel disruption overnight, they can make it more manageable for staff,” said Sushant Jain. “By introducing measures to improve travel flexibility, training opportunities and next-generation technologies, APAC organisations can adapt to a challenging market and future-proof their business travel posture for the long term.”

For more information about the survey, including additional findings, please download these 2024 reports:

• Global Business Travelers Research Report
• Global Travel Managers Research Report
• APAC Business Travelers Report
• Business Travelers Report - Singapore & Malaysia

_{Methodological Notes}

_{The SAP Concur Global Business Traveler Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research between April 5-26, 2024, among 3,750 business travelers  in 24 markets: U.S., Canada, UK, Germany, France, Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy, Spain, ANZ (Australia, New Zealand), Middle East (UAE, Saudi Arabia), Japan, Korea, India, Mexico, Brazil, SEA (Singapore, Malaysia), South Africa, Portugal, Switzerland, and Austria. Data has been weighted to facilitate tracking.}

_{The SAP Concur Global Travel Manager Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research between April 5-26, 2024, 2024, among 600 travel managers, defined as those who direct or administer travel programs for businesses, across 6 markets: Germany, Canada, Japan, ANZ Countries (Australia and New Zealand), UK, and U.S.}

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About SAP Concur

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