2023 SAP Concur Global Business Travelers Report

Today’s business travelers are eager to travel and recognize the importance of doing so for both their companies and their careers. Yet travelers’ desire and need for flexibility and companies’ current policies concerning travel frequency, duration, and destinations are not always aligned. Travelers are understandably concerned for their own health and safety, including the ability to maintain an acceptable work-life balance, as well as voicing broader concerns around the environmental impacts of travel and the social and cultural circumstances in various destinations.  

• More than 9 in 10 business travelers (91%) are willing to decline an assigned trip that conflicts with these needs, values, and preferences.  

• Nearly all business travelers with a formal corporate travel policy (91%) expect their company to allow the flexibility to book travel outside of company policy in cases where policy may conflict with their needs or values. 

• 3 in 10 business travelers (28%) would turn down a business trip that lacks the flexibility to make adjustments outside of company policy.  

These decisions to take a hard line are not made lightly, however. Business travelers consider travel critical to their careers, essential to maintaining important relationships, and imperative for aiding employee advancement. Yet such travel is becoming increasingly expensive and fraught with cancellations and delays that may require companies to make adjustments. As companies seek to balance corporate belt- tightening with travelers' demands, it is imperative they recognize the experience of business travelers and find solutions that provide the flexibility travelers seek – but do so within the purview of corporate travel programs and budgets.