The survey carried out by OpinionWay and Corporate Mobilities for AXA Partners and Les Entreprises du Voyage polled some 500 French business travellersThe first wave of questions was submitted in mid-July, followed by a second wave (21-28 September) to measure changes in attitudes and practices in business travel. This "Observatoire des déplacements Professionnels en France et à l'Etranger" (Observatory of Business Travel in France and Abroad) shows in particular that " tentative recovery " for business travel, at least on the domestic network. In 34% of cases, the business travel in France are being maintained, compared with 14% abroad. One business traveller in two (50%) nevertheless mentions travel being partially frozen or even totally banned (16%) at home. Abroadforeignthe total travel freezes at 46%.
This hardening of travel policies seems to be in line with the general mood among nomadic professionals, who on the whole do not wish to travel to faraway lands. According to this observatory, travellers are "totally reticent to the idea of travelling to certain regions, starting with Asia (63%), South or Central America (63%), Russia (62%) or Africa (61%). This reluctance falls to 56% for North America, and especially to 28% for trips within the European Union.European Union. It should be noted that 15% of those surveyed confessed to a strong reluctance to make domestic journeys.
if professional travellers consider that health conditions are not satisfactory, 4 out of 5 will exercise their right of withdrawal
However, the health measures put in place by the mobility industry seem to be bearing fruit, and are reassuring travellers more than in the first wave of the survey in July. This is particularly true in thehotelswhere 88% of travellers consider that conditions are completely in line (44%, +7 points) or fairly in line (44%) with health and social distance rules. Travel in aircraft have also gained in reliability with travellers (67%), just like the train (72%) and above all the car rental (75%). The efforts of these various players - embodied in particular by the introduction of labels - are therefore bearing fruit, and today constitute an imperative for convince travellers to get back on the road. According to the authors of the Observatory, " if professional travellers consider that health conditions are not satisfactory, 4 out of 5 will exercise their right of withdrawal ".
It now remains to be seen what the long-term impact of this unprecedented episode will be, and to what extent the new habits adopted by professionals will last once the crisis is over. Because the temptation of the virtual meeting has come a long way, with 64% of companies now encouraginguse of videoconferencing tools to limit travel. Admittedly, this figure is slightly down on the previous wave of the survey (their share reached 75% in July), but it is still very much in line with the trend seen in the previous survey. the added value of face-to-face meetings is becoming less and less obvious... In fact, only 34% of those surveyed believe that a face-to-face meeting is much more effective (12%) or more effective (22%) for a customer meeting. This figure is six points lower than in July. The trend is the same for sales prospecting, where the added value of face-to-face meetings is also down (-8 points, to 32%).
Be that as it may, there will be a post-Covid era in travel management, with both companies and employees planning to make the new rules incorporated into their travel policy a permanent feature. Starting with the use of videoconferencing tools to limit travel, which is planned by 73% of companies and approved by 86% of employees. The next two waves of this Business Travel Observatory, scheduled for mid-January and mid-MarchThis should enable us to check whether these trends are indeed sustainable.
