Smart working, new opportunities for business trips

During his speech at a series of conferences organized by the Círculo de Empresarios de Galicia, Luca Carlucci, CEO of Bizaway has pointed out some signs that invite optimism. The safety of business travelers, the importance of vaccination, flexibility and the opportunities offered by smart working are the key points he points out for this new post-covid era.

The pace of vaccination is marking the sector's recovery. We note that countries such as China have already exceeded this 2021 the number of corporate trips made with respect to the same time period in 2019. Likewise, other countries where vaccination is highly developed, such as Israel,,United Kingdom or United States, have also recovered their business travel, mainly domestic, reaching already more than 60% of pre-pandemic flights.

The crisis caused by the covid-19 and the so-called “new normality” have undoubtedly meant a change in business travel, which, back sustainability, the safety and the risk warnings as key points when traveling.

One of the improvements in the Bizaway platform during the last few months has been the expansion of its risk management module through a partnership with Riskline to ensure real-time alerts on any incidents (health, political or natural) occurring in the destination countries.

Despite the fact that business travel is down 20% compared to 2019 across Europe, there is a noticeable trend change that may impact the business travel sector in a positive way: smart working while it is true that the videoconferencing has reduced short trips that were previously made more frequently, the smart working and the decentralization of work teams, constitutes a new opportunity for the sector.

The arrival of telework is bringing about major changes in the culture and organization of companies. It is a profound transformation that, due to the circumstances, has had to be implemented very quickly.

Now, a company can have its work teams distributed in different geographical areas. This is a benefit for all parties, but also for the business travel, as these teams need to meet on a regular basis to establish joint strategies and synergies. What used to be done in the office may now have to be done by bringing together teams spread across several cities in a single location.

This optimism also extends to the MICE sector. In Italy, face-to-face trade fairs and congresses are starting to be organized from July, with international audiences. We anticipate that the global resumption will begin in September, with the end of the year already very relevant in terms of the reactivation of the entire sector.

In addition to the importance of vaccination and corporate travel security, it is necessary to have flexible suppliers ;in all the verticals of its platform (hotels, airplanes, rental cars, parking…), as well as contract insurance that cover the eventualities produced by the pandemic (contagions in the place of destination, etc.).