Driven largely by leisure travellers this summer, but also by the upturn in international business travel, the third quarter of 2022 saw hotel groups and airlines report a cascade of excellent results. The figures recently published by American Express Global Business Travel (GBT) give a clearer idea of how business travel has fared in this second half of the year. At 488 million dollars, the revenues of this leading travel agency reached 72 % levels for 2019 - an increase of 7 points compared with the second quarter of 2022.
Of course, the period includes months that are traditionally weak for business travel. But TMC was delighted to see its transactions reach their peak in September, in the United States alone, its highest level since the resumption of post-pandemic travel. " The momentum continued in October, with transactions recovering to 76 1Q3Q of 2019 levels" said Paul Abbott, CEO of American Express GBT. the outlook for business travel in the fourth quarter also remains solid" .
With the easing of travel restrictions, the American TMC has observed that an upturn in international travel transactions for the first time higher than those for domestic travel, demonstrating the determination of companies". reconnect with their distributed teams and customers around the world" . Booking volume reached 67% of 2019 levels for international travel, compared to 66% for the US domestic market. This is despite the fact that a number of markets around the world were not yet fully open in the third quarter, suggesting that TMC " additional growth opportunities in the fourth quarter and in 2023" .
Paradoxically, at a time when key countries such as China, and even Japan to a lesser extent, have remained closed to travellers, Asia-Pacific is the best-performing market for the travel agency, thanks in particular to a very strong recovery in Australia and India. Continuously improving since the start of the year, the volume of transactions in this region has risen from 41% in the first quarter of 2019 to 78% in the last quarter. By way of comparison, in the Americas, where, for example, Canada only lifted travel restrictions at the beginning of October, this figure has risen from 46% at the beginning of 2022 to just 68 %. For its part, in the Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) region, the growth increments were 49% in the first quarter of 2022 vs 2019 to reach 72% in the third quarter. " It was a slower summer for us in EMEA, but volumes in September were very strong. recovered at 77 %three points higher than in the second quarter" said Paul Abott.
Hotels and SMEs drive the rise in transactions
In addition to these geographical data, Amex GBT notes that a more marked recovery in the hotel sector than in the airline industry. Transactions in the accommodation sector returned to 2019 levels in the third quarter, at 78%, compared with 66% for air transport. This finding is explained not only by demand, but also by " improving the content and display of hotels "by its Egencia and Neo platforms.
While SMEs quickly began to travel again after the various phases of the pandemic, the nature of their trips, which are more domestic in nature, could also explain this higher proportion of demand for accommodation. The results presented by American Express GBT for the third quarter of 2022 show that SMEs are still leading the sector's recovery. " Reaching 80 % of their level in 2019, SME transactions were 19 points higher than those of global companies and multinationals." said Paul Abott. As a result, American Express GBT sees good prospects for growth with companies that do not yet have managed travel programmes. " We have signed 2.5 billion dollars in new contracts for SMEs in the last twelve months, up to October 2022." said the CEO of TMC.
While the outlook for the last few months of the year is positive, what will happen in 2023 in an increasingly tense economic and geopolitical climate? " It is frankly difficult to predict the impact this may have on demand business trips in 2023" said Paul Abbott. Despite "strong headwinds", the travel agency nevertheless expects " visit solid growth in 2023" . This was based on a number of findings, including a survey of 125 major customers conducted in October, which showed that 95 % of them expected their business travel expenditure to remain stable or even increase.
In addition to market share gains in the SME segment, Amex GBT also expects to benefit in 2023 from improvements in airline capacity, which will boost demand even further, and from a further increase in the number of airlines.strong demand for internal company meetings responding to the widespread use of the hybrid working model. " We are already seeing this in our current results for the Meetings & Events division, as well as in our customers' forecasts for 2023." commented the CEO ofAmerican Express GBT.
