The increase in travel spending in Europe reached 1.3% in 2024 according to the AirPlus Business Travel Index. There are, of course, significant disparities between countries. The United Kingdom (+2.6%), Switzerland (4.9%) and above all the Netherlands (8.1%) posted above-average increases. Conversely, the German market is in decline (-1.5%).
Germany nevertheless stands out in the ranking of the continent's top business destinations. The European top 5 remains unchanged from the previous ranking: Germany is ahead of Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy and Spain. France and Italy. As for international destinations, the main change concerns the Moroccowhich enters the Top 5 at the expense of Japan. The United States remains firmly at the top of the rankings, along with China and India.
The report AirPlus Business Travel Index also confirms the negative impact of major events, which are forcing business travellers to avoid certain destinations. Starting, of course, with the Olympic Games, whose impact is estimated at -46%, compared with -11% for the European Football Championship. " This can be explained by the fact that hotel rooms and plane tickets are becoming a rare and expensive commodity at these events, and compliance guidelines are making it increasingly difficult for companies to invite customers or partners to expensive events. "stress the authors of the report.
Other key findings of the AirPlus study include the (slight) decline in domestic flights and day return trips, from 32.3 to 31.4 % and from 6.8 to 6.5 % respectively. According to the report, the average duration of a business trip was 6.1 days last year, compared with 5.9 days in 2023. In line with other studies, the AirPlus Business Travel Index also confirms the bleisure trend. This would certainly explain the popularity of weekend flights, which reached 16.3 % last year. Finally, business travellers seem to be anticipating their trips more. The average booking margin is now 28.9 days, compared with 26.4 days in 2023, according to Airplus.
