Earlier predictions suggested corporate travel would take a long, long time to come back. But the good news is, that industry experts are reporting that corporate business is flooding back into agencies, sometimes to the point of overwhelming their staff. And with the upside ‘caution’ must be exercised in all circumstances.
Jonathan Gerber There is a massive catch-up happening,” said Jonathan Gerber, CEO of TAG (Travel Assignment Group) in conversation with TNW.
“In business, people haven’t visited their clients for around two years. Since the PCR requirement for re-entering South Africa fell away, there has been a big spike in travel, both corporate and leisure.”
But Gerber advised caution.
“This could be short-lived. Until all testing of travellers has fallen away, testing will remain a major threat to corporate travel and incentives. The last thing corporates want is the liability that comes with one of their travellers finding themselves in a foreign country and then testing positive in an arrival COVID test at a foreign airport. Corporates remain cautious.
“Also, the idea of combining a business trip with a family leisure trip, which had become popular before COVID, now falls away because young children cannot be vaccinated and require tests to get into many countries.
“There will be peaks and troughs for a while. No one knows how long the current boom will last,” said Gerber. “Are we back to 2019 levels? No. Are things improving? Yes!”
Morné du Preez, CEO of Tourvest Travel Services said: “We continue to see corporate clients return to their offices, even if only in a staggered approach, and therefore expect an increase in both domestic and international travel. After the November hiccup we all faced, there was an almost immediate return and increase to international bookings, which is certainly a reflection of how quickly things can change. Should this continue to increase, we anticipate corporate and government travel to reach almost 70-80 % of 2019 numbers by the end of 2022.”
One thing is sure, said Du Preez. “People want to meet, interact and transact on a face-to-face basis.”
So we remain positive, upbeat and ensure our TAG (Travel Assignment Group) team adapt to all possible changes scenarios. During lockdown TAG worked on, improved & sharpened their skills, upgraded our technology, ensuring you, our customer, benefits from a smarter better business solution.
Together we stronger, better and ready to move forward. Stay connected.
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