Corporate travel will be 9% more expensive by 2023 due to higher flight and hotel prices

The average ticket or average expenditure on corporate travel has increased by 9% in 2023 and is expected to continue to increase in 2024 due to the increase in airline tickets and hotel rooms, although the increase will be more moderate.

In addition, the cost of financing of the companies has risen by 49% compared to the previous year, according to data provided Monday by the tourism alliance Forum Business Travel.

Among the causes, business travel will be affected by the expected 1.8% increase in annual rates next year, after growing by 2.3% in 2023.

The insufficient supply in the face of excessive demand would be behind the increase in the price of airline tickets, which since the pandemic would have shot up 40%, says the sales representative in Catalonia of the airline Air China, Marta Ortiz, who participated in the presentation of these data.

The lack of seats, the greater control of the airlines on prices, the rising inflation worldwide, the fluctuations in the cost of fuel and the strength of the holiday traffic are some of the causes behind the aforementioned increase.

The corporate travel bill is also influenced by the price of accommodation - up 30% in 2022 compared with the previous year in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) - and vehicles, which could close the current year with growth of 6.7% and rise by around 1.6% in 2024.

The anticipation at the time of organizing a trip and the concentration of the purchase of nights in a limited number of suppliers are the solutions proposed to counteract the increase in the prices of business travel.

MICE tourism - meetings, congresses, incentives and exhibitions - as a whole moved ?16.5 billion in Spain in 2022 and employed more than 76.00 people, contributing 10% to the tourism GDP and 1.2% to the national economy, according to a report prepared by ObservaTUR for the Association of Specialized Incentive Travel Agencies (Idemice).