As it does every year, the Business Travel Observatory has taken an in-depth look at the dynamics shaping the Italian business travel market.
The data on 2021 that emerged from the survey provide us with information on the types of travel and means of transportation preferred by Italian companies, emerging trends and innovative tools that have been used along the Digital Business Travel Journey.
What destinations and by what means?
The impact of the health emergency on business and leisure travel continues to be considerable. There has been an increase in travel across national borders, but despite this, business travel within Italy has increased by 16%, 1% more than departures to foreign countries.
The largest slice of the business travel spending budget is allocated to transportation. Among the favored means are train and airplane, which rank equal in number of trips.
As for cars, the most significant figure concerns rentals, which saw a growth of 24 percent during 2021.
Emerging trends: sustainability and security
Sustainability, from the perspective of environmental impact, is one of the focal points of the Observatory research group's strategy.
In the Business Travel sector, the focus on sustainability translates primarily into an attempt to increase the number of green vehicles. The goal is to reach 20 percent of the total fleet. This is an ambitious but necessary goal given that trends show an increase, not only in the quantity of rentals, but also in their duration.
Security has undoubtedly been the main focus of Italian companies, inside offices as well as during business travel. The Observatory found that only 10 percent of Italian companies have not yet signed a travel policy. Certainly the pandemic has brought the attention of the entire business travel world to the management and protection of the traveler, including through the use of innovative digital tools.
Risks to travelers? Business travel responds with digital
Looking at the research data, one realizes that the interest in traveler protection has led to the development of digital tools that have up-to-date destination information and tracking systems. The business travel industry's response to the need to track and inform its employees has resulted in the creation of platforms that manage end-to-end missions and individual steps in the process.
Thorough analysis of 2021 data showed that the most digitized operations in the entire process are reservations and payment systems.
