American Express GBT (Global Business Travel) and ACT (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) met with 239 travel buyers to find out about the new expectations, practices and fears of the business travel industry. Unsurprisingly - given the current context and the various studies regularly highlighting this trend - security is one of the sector's major issues. According to the Checking In: Servicing the Multifaceted Modern Business Traveller "a comfortable majority of purchasers (56 %) report that they have rising safety concerns among 'their' business travellers over the last three months. More surprisingly, one of the most common anxiety-provoking destinations designated by this survey is none other than the United States. Thus, 54 % of buyers would have observed " growing concern when travelling to the United States "This is explained in particular by the new requirements in terms of visas and immigration policy.
In practice, however, concrete measures remain limited. A quarter of those surveyed (25%) reported an increase in requests for training safety training, while a third of buyers have already put policies in place to improve safety training. Nevertheless, the awareness is unanimous: 87 % of respondents want to take such measures.
Safety, the number one priority for business travel according to the EVP barometeralso involves data protection. Business travellers are beginning to realise this, with a third of them (31%) having requested training in this area. The fact remains that the BYOD ('Bring Your Own Device') remains widespread, with the companies surveyed most often (58%) permitting the use of personal mobile tools during a business trip, as well as access to public WiFi on work devices (64 %).
