Safety tops concerns for business travel return

Clarity, the business travel experts, today released the results of a client survey on the future of business travel alongside their own 10 step guide to re-starting a travel programme.

The survey, completed by over 100 travel and procurement managers and supplemented by a series of one to one discussions and roundtable events, helped to shape Clarity’s re-start document, alongside a series of exciting new product developments.

Unsurprisingly, traveller safety was the key takeaway from the survey and sessions, with all respondents considering it paramount when considering a travel restart bid. Other results included:

• 95% of clients have or are working on a plan to re-start their business travel (20% have completed)
• 80% of clients confirmed that they will be making more use of video conferencing
• 65% of clients are considering the introduction of a risk assessment process in addition to their travel policy
• Regarding volumes, forecasts for international travel were more pessimistic than domestic with 75% of respondents expected volumes to be at less than 50% of pre-pandemic levels for the rest of the year.  Domestically 88% of respondents said they would use or consider using car instead of public transport.

Restarting your travel programme

The 10 step guide to restarting your travel and events programme, is available as a free download on Clarity’s new Covid19 travel resource centre. The page, consisting of a number of live global travel dashboards alongside links to the BTA and IATA, provides much-needed insight and factually accurate information to help travel managers when thinking about future travel plans for their business.

Speaking about the future of travel, Clarity’s CEO Pat McDonagh, said:

“At the very heart of this is the wellbeing of the traveller, the responsibility of the employer to ensure a safe journey and a realisation that the world has changed so video conferencing will be a huge factor moving forward. We are proud to have a varied client base, with a strong voice. They have made it clear just how important getting travel started again is to them, so this guide helps our customers do that safely and confidently.

The right tools for the job

Alongside the restart guide, Clarity have also been investing heavily in their technology to ensure that their clients are fully supported in this new future. Their leading online booking tool, Go2Book, has been undergoing numerous updates to adapt to the latest supplier safety policy and procedures aimed at restoring confidence in travel.

Clarity’s Commercial Director, Sue Chapman, explained:

“We’re seeing an increase in suppliers wanting to support the travel restart and that begins with traveller trust. By working with TMCs to provide accurate safety information, we’re able to instill that trust, not just at the booking stage, but throughout with relevant updates via our Go2Mobile app and Trip Advisor, traveller itinerary.

For more information about how to restart your travel and events programme, please visit our Covid-19 resource page.

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