Realties and Drivers of Change in the Market
During this time of rising change and increased uncertainty, we wanted to share a few stats we’ve seen as we work with companies around the world to develop strategic travel, meetings, payment and expense programs to equip leaders for business transformation.
Pre-COVID-19 Stats:
63%
63% of company trips were non-revenue related
#2
T&E was the 2nd largest controllable indirect spend – 1.63% of Top Line Revenue
17%
17% of direct spend on average bypassed agencies
Post-COVID-19 Stats
Travel Plans
62%
62% of companies don’t have a plan to manage T&E in post-COVID-19 / new environment
Hotel
Hotel (category) will remain a buyer’s market for the foreseeable future
Air, Car & Rail will remain a buyer’s market for a short time longer– becoming a seller’s market beginning in September 2020
Transformed T&E
- The requirement to manage all travelers at the onset of trip request / workflow is now imperative
- Bypass of designated channels (agencies) and protocols can not be allowed
- As much as 40% of previously approved trips will occur virtually
- Cashless payments and users have accelerated the move to increasing corporate “Cardable” and broad Spend-Under-Management (S-U-M) spend
- Integration and digitalization of invoice processes have become vital to organizations in a “touch-less” environment
As much as 40% of previously approved trips will occur virtually
Agency
30% of agencies are estimated to go out of business due to the hardships of COVID-19 by October 2020
- If Air Travel does not exceed 40% (of 2019 levels) by the end of September 2020, this number will grow exponentially
- Some airlines, hotels and other suppliers may fold – a potential & dramatically different landscape unless of deep government bailouts or return of business travel
- Many of the agencies will continue to struggle financially & for the foreseeable future
The post-COVID world will require some of the largest investments by Agencies to manage new protocols for corporate travelers/programs