The past year has not been an easy one for business travellers. These are the findings of a study published by TravelPerkAccording to the report, 78% will be mobile professionals by 2024. This annual report entitled Travel Disruption Report - the second published by the business travel management platform - also estimates that 43% of travellers experienced delays of more than one hour in 2024. And more than one in four business travellers (27%) faced outright cancellation...
The report is based on a survey of 4000 travellers. The French market was not surveyed, as TravelPerk focused on four countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, Spain and finally the United States. And it is in this latter market that 2024 has proved the most problematic. The authors of the Travel Disruption Report note: " The highest number of cancellations occurs at United States, with almost 140,000 flights cancelled in 2024, while the European business travellers say they are the most affected by strikes in transport ".
According to figures released by TravelPerk, 41 % of those surveyed have missed a customer appointment or arrived late because of travel disruption. In 40 % of cases, these disruptions resulted in additional costs, in particular to cover the cost of accommodation or rebooking.
Beyond the financial aspect, TravelPerk estimates that more than a third (36 %) of business travellers have been forced to make overtime to make up for the time lost during these disruptions. And 85 % of those surveyed felt that their productivity at work had been affected by the turbulence.
According to the authors of the report, overall disturbance rates remain similar to those in 2023. They also point out that the causes of disruption " vary considerably by region, with cancellations and strikes particularly affecting European markets ". For example, British and German business travellers are most affected by transport strikes (27 % and 29 % respectively), whereas these affect "only" 9 % in the United States. But US business travellers suffered the highest number of flight cancellations: 139,777 for the period March to September 2024 alone. The US market was also particularly exposed to weather problems, with a rate of 30%.
However, according to the figures in the Travel Disruption Report, China had proportionally the highest rate of flight cancellations (5%), ahead of Canada and the United States (3%). The authors point out that last year, the ranking was dominated by Indonesia, with a cancellation rate in double figures: 13%.
For Tomasz Wrzaszcz, business intelligence specialist at TravelPerk, " Although each region faces unique challenges, the end result for business travellers is the same: more time spent in airports, railway stations or bus stations, and fewer hours of productive work or time at home ".
Kamil Jagodzinski, Vice President of Customer Service at TravelPerk, points out that ". Travel can be unpredictable. At any given time, travellers are faced with weather changes, geopolitical repercussions or technical failures, leaving them feeling helpless, confused and frustrated. When disruption does occur, it is essential that our customers feel supported by being fast and efficient. Our data shows that despite advances in technology, only 10 % of travellers prefer the help of a chatbot to that of a human customer service agent. At TravelPerk, we've integrated AI into our customer service teams so we can leverage this technology to handle double the volume of customer enquiries compared to 2023, with the same number of human agents - ensuring customers are able to speak to a human if something unexpected happens "adds Kamil Jagodzinski.
