The business travel managers expect virtual meetings to replace more than a quarter of total travel volume by 2022- exactly 27%. This is the result of an investigation by the investment bank Stanley Morgan conducted between late June and early July.
However, this is an improvement on 2020 when 44% of business trips had given way to online meetings. At 2023These same managers believe that virtual meetings should always replace 19% face-to-face meetings.
Of the 140 business travel managers questioned by Morgan Stanley, more than two-thirds have an annual travel budget of at least 10 million dollars. And a third have annual budgets of more than 15 billion dollars. In the sample of companies selected, 67% are based in the United States, 19% in Europe and 14% in Asia or anywhere else in the world.
The importance of videoconferencing is due to more efficient management of employees' working time. But there are also health and environmental considerations.
Environmental reasons, a European concern
In terms of motivation, nearly three quarters of respondents said that the move to the virtual world represents "a more efficient use of employees' time".. Next comes thehe reduction of costs through technology, at 72%. 59% mention concerns about Covid-19. Finally almost 50% cite environmental and sustainability concerns.
However, these figures vary from continent to continent. These fluctuations are largely inherent in the management of the pandemic, coercive measures (quarantine) or mobility protocols (open borders) from one government to another. However, we note that European companies see environmental concerns as an important reason for replacing travel. They are 25% to cite the environment as a motivation for videoconferencing versus 5% in American companies.
Travel managers believe that virtual travel should stabilise at around one-fifth of the volume of meetings. The results of the survey indicate that most respondents expect virtual meetings to "continue to cannibalise a significant proportion" of their travel volume in 2023. A percentage of 63% says that virtual meetings would replace 11% and 50% of their organisation's travel volume in 2023.
However, there is some hope for a return to normality in the near future. That's right, over a quarter of respondents (27 %) expect video-conferencing to replace less than 10 % of travel. 7 % only predict that virtual meetings will not replace any travel in 2023.
Lasting budget cuts
Morgan Stanley's survey concludes that we should therefore expect the following Travel budgets to shrink over the next two years. For 52 % of those questioned, this travel budget will fall from 11% to 50 % compared with 2019 levels. The average should therefore be around 17.5%. Only 4% of travel managers believe that their 2021 budget will reach the pre-Covid volume this year.
However, this proportion rises to 17% for the first half of 2022 and gains a further two points for the second half. 20% only travel managers think that their travel budget will be equivalent to its 2019 level in 2023.
However, the figure remains low, with little prospect of improvement. In the survey, a quarter of those questioned already believe that their budget will never return to its pre-health crisis level.
