NATIONAL REPORT – Consulting firm Deloitte on Thursday
released its annual analysis of business travel trends among U.S.-based
companies, highlighting in 2025 the mixed conditions under which business
travel and the management of that travel are taking place. Study authors
concluded that while business travel continues to grow “the pace appears to be
modest and is very unlikely to exceed the 9.6% U.S spend growth forecast by the
Global Business Travel Association.”
Small companies less likely to reduce budgets
The majority of surveyed companies increased their travel
spending in 2025, compared to 2024. Nearly three-quarters of companies did so,
with an average increase of 22% over last year, according to Deloitte. A
smaller slice—but still more than two-thirds—predicted their 2026 travel spend
will outpace 2025 and with a slightly stronger increase of 23% on average.
Ten percent of companies overall cited reduced travel
spending in 2025 compared to last year, with the average budget reduction
landing at a considerable 28%. Buyers cited slightly better expectations for
2026, with 9% projecting reduced spending and at a lower average reduction of
24%.
According to the Deloitte study, larger companies with
bigger travel budgets were more affected by spend reductions in 2025, with 20%
impacted by cuts and the average cut coming in at 35%.
Comparatively, just 6% of small companies indicated budget
cuts, and the average reduction across that group was lower at 18%.
Deloitte defined “large companies” by their travel spend for
the purposes of this survey and pegged large companies as those spending $7.5
million or more annually on all travel. That is a significantly lower bar than
other industry benchmarks for large travel spend: Business Travel News defines
large programs as those that spend at least $14 million air travel in a
calendar year; Amex GBT defines enterprise programs as those that maintain more
than $20 million in annual air volume.
Key business travel drivers
Travel managers surveyed by Deloitte cited increasing
year-over-year spend on every type of travel tracked in the study—this could
largely be down to increasing costs (see Barriers to business travel below).
The most prevalent increase among surveyed companies were for on-site
monitoring visits, where spend increased for 65% of companies in 2025, compared
to just over 40% of companies in 2024. Leadership meetings were another area of
more intensive travel spend in 2025. Just under 50% of surveyed companies spent
more on this type of travel in 2024, while two-thirds spent more on them in
2025.
As has been reported by many outlets, attendance at
conferences and trade shows was a key investment for businesses. Not only did
Deloitte’s study show companies increasing YOY spending on this travel type, 65%
of travelers surveyed said they would attend a conference or event in 2025,
making it the largest incidence for travel and clocking in 2 percentage points
higher than last year.
Almost half of travelers said they would travel for training
in 2025 and 39% said they would travel for sales meetings and client
relationship building. Client project work was in store for 36% of traveler
respondents and just over one-third would travel for internal meetings.
Barriers to business travel
Among the 1,000 business travelers surveyed by Deloitte, 18%
reported that they traveled regularly (6 to 10 trips annually) and 9% reported
they traveled frequently (more than 10 trips per year). Year over year the
group that travels regularly increased by 3% and the group that travels
frequently decreased by 3% in what looks like a travel downshift among those
who travel most intensely.
Among those road warriors, Deloitte drilled into a 10% shift
in traveler respondents who hit the road 3-plus times per month to a 9%
increase in travelers who travel 2 times per month, signaling a systemic
reduction. Additionally, 26% of travelers at larger companies are taking 6 or
more trips a year versus 31% who did so last year—another downshift.
The Deloitte study does not mention macroeconomic factors in
play that could be affecting overall business outlook. It does parse some
industry-centric stats—airlines reporting sluggish business travel in the
second quarter and hospitality research company STR citing “lagging corporate
demand” in a recent forecast update that also noted a 3% drop in group demand
for the second quarter.
BTN research, however, has noted the impact of U.S. economic policy and tariffs has
a broadly destabilizing factor for the business travel outlook. The timing of
the Deloitte study in July coincided with the U.S. administration’s march to
full tariff implementation on August 7 and the country-by-country tariff
negotiations that led up to that point.
With those dates now past, and some key softening in the U.S
stance on tariffs, several U.S. airlines at a recent Morgan Stanley investor
conference already have marked a business travel uptick late in the third
quarter that they expect to continue in the fourth.
That said, there are still challenges, with travel costs
themselves chief among them.
Fifty-four percent of travel managers responding to the
Deloitte survey cited rising costs as critical factor limiting business travel
volumes. That was 6 percentage points higher in 2025 compared to 2024.
Other factors rising in significance as impediments to
travel included a continued—and for some companies, more intensive—focus on
actioning their sustainability strategies.
Forty-eight percent of companies cited sustainability
commitments as putting a drag on their travel activities, compared to just 38%
the prior year. Perhaps surprisingly, coming off a recent era of pent-up demand
in business and leisure travel, 34% of companies cited an increasing
unwillingness among employees to travel—up about 6 percentage points from last
year.
Formal travel restrictions in 2025 held steady from 2024,
with about 44% of companies citing them.
Perhaps a more interesting trend to watch for upcoming
studies will be the shift from tactical travel management—signaled by such
controls as KPIs on travel budgets and pre-trip assessments—to more strategic
governance. The Deloitte study spotted a 3% increase in companies evaluating
travel strategy at the C-suite or board level. Rising costs, sustainability
strategies and potentially uncertain business outlook may keep that level of
scrutiny alive.
Editor’s Note: Results of Deloitte’s business travel study
should be tempered by the fact that response rates to the annual effort have
fallen in recent years. In 2023, Deloitte collected responses among 334 travel
managers to support the study. This year, the number of respondents was less
than half of the 2023 universe at just 151. The 2024 survey queried just
104 travel managers, which should be considered when looking at year-over-year
comparisons. The business traveler portion of the survey netted 1,000 responses
this year.
Note: This story first appeared on Business Travel News
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