In April 2020, airline passengers in the U.S. fell by 96% compared to the same time in 2019. Due to the necessity of remote working policies over the past year, business travel became an unthinkable concept.
Now, the business travel industry is having to completely reconfigure its strategies in order to accommodate the new needs of professionals.
However, some experts are confident that business travel will rebound as the digital nomad population grows and more people have the ability to work from anywhere.
“I think we will see these two worlds come together, as more and more business travelers opt to bring their families on trips,” said Steven Schumacher, director of sales at Discover Dunwoody outside of Atlanta. “The ‘bleisure’ travel trend will become more prevalent.”
Some hospitality companies are noting this trend and offering services that accommodate these new digital nomads. For instance, citizenM hotels recently started offering a subscription-based global passport which allows remote workers to stay at any of its locations.
The company is also providing a corporate subscription for businesses who want to use hotel rooms and meeting spaces.
Hotels have also started including new technologies to accommodate business travel, such as in-app services, Internet of Things (IoT) tools, and more.
“The biggest issue when traveling remains connectivity and access to local services, being able to upgrade your room’s Wi-Fi connection or easily find and access local services such as mailing or food delivery are big missing pieces,” said Tyler Browning, director of business development at software company MartianCraft.
