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IN BRIEF
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The business travel is moving forward, but at a measured pace. Rebuilt on its fundamentals after the crisis, it accumulates tangible advances — digitalization, personalization, rising power of CSR, growth of NDC and multisourcing — and persistent setbacks, due to budget pressures, cultural inertia, and incomplete adoption of new mobilities. On the occasion of a round table at the IFTM Top Resa 2025, stakeholders painted a contrasting picture: air traffic still below 2019, promises of electric partially deferred, but acceleration expected via AI, electronic invoicing, and non-financial reporting. At the heart of the debate, a maturity issue: repositioning travel within a logic of value creation, beyond mere price.
After the crisis, a sector rebuilt on its fundamentals
The rupture announced during the health crisis — fewer trips, more virtual — has morphed into a more nuanced recomposition. Five years later, business travel has gotten back on track by consolidating its foundations: modernized tools, more flexible traveler journeys, better personalized services, and the systematic integration of CSR criteria into the client-supplier relationship. During the round table hosted by Marie Allantaz at the IFTM Top Resa 2025, executives and technologists aligned: while the sector has regained a “spirit of rebirth,” air traffic remains below 2019, and the shift to electromobility in professional uses remains uneven, despite increasingly aligned rates with thermal options. Several analyses emphasize an expected rebound by 2026, still dependent on economic arbitrations and travel policies.
Distribution: NDC and multisourcing change the game
The distribution chain has transformed deeply. The rise of NDC and multisourcing reshapes access to air and hotel content, promoting a richer, more dynamic offer, and more segmented pricing and service policies. This mutation, driven by technological platforms and TMCs, goes hand in hand with the emergence of new business travel innovations: real-time data, optimization engines, integration of CO₂ criteria and compliance rules at the heart of the booking journey.
Transformed discourse, resilient practices
The major trends seem indisputable — CSR, digital, AI, multimodality — but their implementation still faces very concrete realities. In a context of constraints, price remains the determining criterion, particularly during price-dominant tenders that can overshadow service value. The private sector seeks a better balance between costs, technological quality, and human support, but this ambition is confronted with budget short-termism and the need to demonstrate quick gains.
Adoption by employees: an underestimated obstacle
The success of a travel policy does not solely hinge on tools. On the usage side, electric remains insufficiently adopted in rentals despite increasing competitiveness, in-person meetings are regaining ground to seal business decisions, and pre-crisis reflexes persist on short trips. All these clues indicate that transformation requires pedagogy, incentives, and a clear demonstration of benefits for travelers. In this context, reminding of the value of professional meetings and their impact on commercial performance helps guide arbitrations.
Complex arbitrations among stakeholders
Finance prioritizes compliance and cost control, CSR aims for footprint reduction, procurement negotiates price, while travelers expect comfort and fluidity. This plurality of objectives creates a delicate balancing act, sometimes slowing down decisions and the dissemination of best practices. Periods of tension — marked by sales losses in certain verticals — further emphasize the focus on immediate savings, at the expense of a long-term vision.
The growing role of digital and AI
The promises of AI are becoming concrete levers of efficiency. Technological players mention up to 30% productivity gains from automating search, control, and post-sales service tasks. Tomorrow, decision-support engines will optimize in real-time the compromises between price, CO₂, comfort, and security, while refining personalization. Meanwhile, the online adoption rate continues to progress, while the quality of offline — human relationship, expert advice, support in exceptional situations — becomes significantly differentiating. In this movement, travel agencies are stepping back to reinvent their role, between technological orchestration and premium service.
Online vs offline: towards demanding hybridization
Companies favor smooth, self-service journeys for the standard, while requiring expert support for sensitive cases: complex policies, country risks, rerouting. This hybridization requires open platforms, solid data governance, and KPIs that measure both traveler satisfaction and carbon footprint and financial performance.
Energy transition and new mobilities
The rise of electric in company fleets and the demand for infrastructure — charging points in hotels, equipped parking — represent a major project. Adoption, slower than expected, should accelerate due to the combined effects of regulations, regulatory pressure, and better-controlled TCO. Multimodality policies — prioritizing rail over short-haul, optimization of urban trips, better-located accommodations — are maturing, but require robust aggregation tools and clear incentives for travelers.
A regulatory framework that accelerates transformation
By 2026, electronic invoicing will standardize and secure data flows, simplify accounting reconciliation, and improve budget visibility. Expected in 2027, non-financial reporting will make the ESG indicators related to travel more transparent: CO₂ emitted, efficiency of sobriety plans, quality of data. These regulatory milestones necessitate a revision of processes, the governance of systems, and collaboration with suppliers, from aviation to accommodation.
Towards global value creation rather than a cost logic
Beyond a proclaimed “new paradigm,” the current period resembles a demanding transition. The discussions from the AFTM workshop invite to strengthen strategic maturity: evaluate business travel as an investment in sales, innovation, cohesion, and employer branding. The challenge is not just to reduce, but to optimize: choose trips that create the most value, orchestrate a responsible and high-performing experience, and document results with indicators shared by all stakeholders.
