Will reducing emissions reduce corporate travel?

Businesses are getting their employees back on the road, and it's only a matter of time before travel spending catches up to 2019. But corporate travel today is much different than it was four years ago.

That's the key takeaway from Phocuswright's new report, The Green Dilemma: How Emissions Reductions Will Affect Corporate Travel. This report is part of a larger content series that explores how IATA's new distribution capabilities (NDC) and airline direct booking will put strain on intermediaries, new entrants will take center stage, and personalization and generative AI It also reveals that technologies such as these are making travel more risky. provider.

Another big change is related to travel spending, including how much companies allocate to their air travel budgets. Many large companies are not spending as much of their revenue on travel as they did in the past.

Sustainability will be a major hurdle to corporate travel's recovery. Most Fortune 1000 companies have been vocal about their commitment to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, citing science-based targets (SBT) initiatives and pledges to limit Scope 3 emissions.

Scope 3 emissions come from external sources, such as throughout the supply chain and customer use of products, and also include carbon emissions from business travel.

A combination of factors has led to increased corporate sustainability efforts. It becomes more acceptable and even laudable to consider alternative modes of transport and classes of travel, to combine multiple trips into one, or to not have to make some trips at all. .

Many companies have shown that by replacing in-person meetings with video conferencing, they can successfully achieve their goals.

Reducing air miles is the easiest way for companies to limit greenhouse gas emissions while reducing costs by evaluating the need (and environmental impact) of each trip. While not all sustainability activities lead to cost savings (for example, taking a direct flight or staying in a “green” hotel can increase costs), when they are combined, , which could lead to a reduction in travel overall.