The way people travel for work in 2022 or 2023 will look a lot different than it did just a few years ago. So, grab a burner phone (and your freshly wiped laptop) before you go.
As the pandemic winds down and businesses start making plans for a post-pandemic world, the one big question is: How has business travel changed?
Airports and airplanes are starting to fill up, but mostly with leisure travelers. Business travel is recovering far slower than tourism.
A poll from SAP Concur found that business travel is likely to start booming by the end of this year. But that sounds unlikely to me. I believe we’ll see a mini-boom starting in March and April, then a slowdown in late 2022 as COVID-19 spikes again in the winter, followed by a real boom in the spring of 2023. (I’m not an expert in epidemiology, but my understanding from reading real experts says that the road to endemic status for COVID-19 involves one more winter spike—something that probably didn’t factor into the thinking of those polled by SAP.)
What we do know is this: When it does come back, business travel will look very different. Here's what to expect.
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