Business travel set to boom in COVID’s wake

Pent up demand for business travel is as big as that for leisure travel, says corporate travel king Jamie Pherous.

Predictions of the demise of business travel are wildly inaccurate, says corporate travel king Jamie Pherous. Picture: istock

Predictions that business travel will never recover to pre-COVID levels following the uptake of Zoom and Teams technology have been criticised as wildly off the mark by corporate travel king Jamie Pherous.

The founder and managing director of Corporate Travel Management said reports suggesting airlines should expect business trips to permanently decline between 19 per cent and 36 per cent were “dribble”.

The IdeaWorks Company report found travel for intracom­pany meetings would suffer the biggest decline of up to 60 per cent, followed by travel for sales activity and securing clients.

Mr Pherous said just as there was huge pent-up demand for leisure travel and visiting friends and relatives, there was equally large demand for business travel.

“I can’t stress highly enough the demand for business travel,” Mr Pherous said. “Now that borders have reopened we’ve had a number of clients calling to say ‘we’ve got a lot of work to do before Christmas, seeing customers, seeing suppliers’.

“People underestimate the need for face-to-face meetings. You can’t not travel if you run a national or global business.”

His views were shared by Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott, who said “some things could not be done remotely”.

“Businesses need to get the right skills to the right places and to meet with their customers and suppliers,” Ms Westacott said.

“Many people want the chance to work safely with interstate colleagues again.”

She said it was crucial state borders were kept open to restore confidence in travel “with clear and predictable plans that give everyone the ability to get on with their lives”.

The new year was already looking promising for business travel with the golden triangle of Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane the “key”, Mr Pherous said.

“Flights between those three cities represent 45 per cent of all transactions in the [Australia-New Zealand] region, so opening that triangle has been critical,” Mr Pherous said.

With three carriers set to compete on the routes next year, with Rex starting flights in March, Mr Pherous said business travellers would be the winners.

“Airlines operating over that triangle must have a corporate angle to survive because that’s where the money is, not leisure,” he said. “Customers look for scheduling, flexibility and pricing and the more competition there is, the better.”

Perth-based Vimy Resources CEO and frequent flyer Mike Young said that, before the pandemic he was travelling overseas for work four to six times a year, and within Australia quarterly.

He said it would be some time before he resumed that level of flying after embracing various forms of video technology during the crisis. “Zoom meetings certainly don’t provide the same nuances that face-to-face meetings do, which is important when you’re meeting new people, new investors,” Mr Young said.

“But we already have a number of established relationships so the need for travel is not so great. We’ve certainly noticed a significant saving as a result of not travelling, and will probably rethink how much travel is essential going forward.”