Business Travel Is Evolving Faster Than Ever. We’ll Help You Navigate It
It might feel Like a distant memory, but in 2020, the COVVI-19 pandemic radically transformed the way people lived, and specifically how they worked. At the time, many health experts, CEOs and publications (including wired) predicted that Covid would indefinitely tighten business trips. If our daily tasks and meetings could occur using Zoom, Slack and other online tools, the logic took place, then why not apply this same digital philosophy for work trips?
But towards the end of this year, Sara Nelson, an international president of the Association of Flight Apose-Cwa, AFL-CIO, and a Career United Airlines, offered a prediction that turned out to be premonitory. “Virtual meetings have connected people in a new way,” she said, “but what we have seen in the travel industry is that the more people are connected by technology, the more they want to travel-because people naturally want to be together. And if you think that companies will say “Oh, we don’t have to pay these expenses, we don’t have to pay for these plane titles and hotel sessions – the first moment
Indeed, once the vaccines have become widely available and the threat has calmed down, business managers began to recall workers in the mass office. They also started to get rid of these employees to return in the air. According to a 2024 World Travel & Tourism Council report, Global Business Travel has now exceeded pre-pale levels and was estimated at $ 1.5 billion in spending only last year.
This is why the airlines are now found in an apparent arms race to offer the most sparkling airport salons (see, for example, the very first Delta One fair, which opened last year at JFK) and new commercial class equipment (privacy doors; hyperrsonalized service). At the same time, the experience of generation Y, eager to flex their spending power, has created a boom from “bleisher” trips – extensive trips that combine business and leisure. With this, an increasing awareness that business travel can also be a social prosecution and driving for personal growth.
Business Travel’s rebound also provides unprecedented technological innovation. Wi-Fi Airplane, once again a unreliable punch line that a real service, now works remarkably well. (Whether you used it to make up for work or disseminate tiktoks for hours, as one of us may have done during a recent business trip, ultimately depends on you). Airlines and technological companies also benefit from the advances of generative AI, completing everything, from customer service to spending software with tools that can provide faster responses or automate part of the chore inherent in business trip. One day in the near future, AI can even reserve and manage all of your route, adapt its decisions according to your personal preferences and keep you informed of last minute changes.
Consider this package as a start on where you can expect business trips to take you in the years to come. The Wired and Condé Nast Traveler teams have shared their collective expertise to bring you thoughtful and deeply reported stories, trips of several days to technology that keeps air planes on the longest flights in the world. We also answer all your questions about how to better travel in business, maximize your hotel points for managing your expenses and, of course, the best luggage and equipment to buy before your next trip. Business trips, like the world itself, could evolve quickly, but a little well-organized information from the teams who know it best is everything you need to be a master of heaven.
