Gitnux/Report 2026

Corporate Travel Industry Statistics

Corporate Travel Industry data shows how dramatically payment behavior and booking patterns are shifting, from faster adoption of traveler focused tools to changing travel spend priorities. The latest 2025 and 2026 figures make the contrast impossible to ignore, helping travel managers spot what is working now and what is slipping before it becomes an issue.
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November 11, 2026Updated
Corporate Travel Industry Statistics
David KowalskiWritten by David Kowalski·Edited by Helena Kowalczyk·Fact-checked by Abigail Foster
Published ·Updated
How this report is researched
01Editorial Scope

An editor sets the topic, the inclusion criteria, and the evaluation framework before research starts.

02Source Research

AI search agents locate sources and extract each figure together with the document it came from.

Read our full methodology →

Search agents attach provenance to every extracted figure.

Next review: within 31 days

01 Industry overview

The corporate travel industry at a glance

Global business travel spending reached an estimated $1.59 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to rise to $1.71 trillion in 2026, as corporate travel continues its post-pandemic recovery despite economic and geopolitical risks.

$1.59T[30]
Global spend, 2025
$1.71T[30]
Forecast global spend, 2026
40.8%[30]
Asia-Pacific spend share, 2024
1.84B[30]
Forecast business trips, 2026
Market size
Global business travel spending was estimated at $1.59 trillion in 2025, after reaching $1.47 trillion in 2024. The 2024 market remained below the 2019 peak of $1.43 trillion in nominal terms only in some regions, but several regions had already exceeded their pre-pandemic spending levels.[30]
Forecast & CAGR
GBTA forecasts global business travel spending to grow 7.2% in 2026 to $1.71 trillion. Its 2025 outlook projected spending above $2 trillion by 2029; the 2024–2029 path implies an approximate 6.0% compound annual growth rate, calculated from the published $1.47 trillion 2024 base and $2.018 trillion 2029 forecast.[30]
Market share & regions
Asia-Pacific accounted for 40.8% of global business travel spending in 2024, followed by North America at 26.9% and Western Europe at 23.4%. Together, these three regions represented 91.1% of worldwide spending.[30]
Segmentation
Corporate travel spending is segmented across air, lodging, ground transportation, rail, meetings and events, and travel-management services. GBTA’s forecast covers 72 countries and 44 industries, while the 2026 outlook projects 1.84 billion global business trips, indicating that both individual managed travel and meetings-related activity remain material segments.[30]
Key players & concentration
Major corporate travel-management providers include American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, CWT, FCM Travel, Navan, CTM and SAP Concur. Amex GBT completed its CWT acquisition in September 2025, adding approximately 2,000 CWT clients and increasing concentration among large enterprise travel-management companies.[36][4]
Pricing
Global average air-ticket prices rose 4.8% in 2024, then were forecast to decline 2.2% in 2025 and increase 0.4% in 2026. Global average daily hotel rates were forecast at $161 in 2024, $163 in 2025 and $166 in 2026.[30]
Trends, drivers & challenges
Growth is being supported by the normalization of face-to-face meetings, international trade and investment, and renewed corporate travel budgets. Key constraints include trade-policy uncertainty, geopolitical risk, inflation, high airfares and hotel rates; GBTA reduced its projected 2025 growth rate from 10.4% to 6.6% and its 2026 projection from 9.2% to 8.1% in its 2025 outlook.[30][6]
Consumer behavior & competition
Business travelers increasingly combine work and leisure: two-thirds of corporate travelers surveyed by Deloitte said they extended a business trip for leisure in 2023. In 2026, companies are placing greater emphasis on low-cost air travel, with 45% of surveyed companies mandating lower-cost flights, up from 37% in 2025.[6]
M&A
The most significant recent transaction was American Express Global Business Travel’s acquisition of CWT, completed in September 2025 after the deal was announced in 2024. The transaction involved approximately 2,000 CWT clients and combined two of the largest established travel-management companies.[36][4]
Latest news
The latest GBTA forecast, released in 2026, estimated that global business travel spending grew 8.4% in 2025 to $1.59 trillion and projected a further 7.2% increase to $1.71 trillion in 2026. The forecast also put global business-trip volume at 1.84 billion trips in 2026.[30]

02 Ranking

Top 9 Companies in the Corporate Travel Industry

The leading companies in the corporate travel industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.

Updated November 11, 2026 · Next review December 11, 2026

Verdict

SAP Concur leads Gitnux's 2026 corporate travel ranking with an Overall score of 9.8, with leading travel and expense management software platform for corporates. Navan is the runner-up at 9.2, with more than 10,000 active customers for travel, expense, payments and managed travel.

Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓

Editor's top 3 picks

Where to start, by need.

  1. #1 Overall · Leader in travel & expense management

    SAP Concur

    US

    Ranked #1 · 9.8 · Travel & expense management

    Why we picked it: It focuses on corporate travel-and-expense management software, aligning with 2026 governance tightness and unified data needs.

    See in ranking ↓Visit concur.com ↗

  2. Leader in corporate travel management

    Egencia

    US

    Ranked #3 · 9.2 · Corporate travel management

    Why we picked it: Global operating coverage supports enterprise travel-management use cases across airfare, lodging, and disruption handling.

    See in ranking ↓Visit egencia.com ↗

  3. Leader in global travel services

    BCD Group

    NL

    Ranked #4 · 9.1 · Global travel services

    Why we picked it: Its global meetings and travel-management scope fits the 72-country GBTA forecast coverage for 2026.

    See in ranking ↓Visit bcdtravel.com ↗

Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.

Full ranking

Sort by
Top 9 companies in the corporate travel industry, 2026 – Gitnux ranking
#CompanyOverall ↓Company snapshot
1

SAP Concur

Travel & expense management · US

9.8
2

Navan

Travel & expense management · US

9.2
3

Egencia

Corporate travel management · US

9.2
4

BCD Group

Global travel services · NL

9.1
5

Global Business Travel Group

Global travel services · GB

8.9
6

Perk

Business travel and integrated travel-spend management

8.7
7

Direct Travel

Global corporate, specialty and event travel management · US

8.7
8

Corporate Travel Management

Global corporate travel management and events · AU

7.8
9

Corporate Travel Services

Corporate travel management services, US · US

7.3

How we score

  • Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
  • Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
  • Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
  • Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.

Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.

Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.

Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 11, 2026.

Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.

Cite this ranking

APA

David Kowalski. (2026, February 13). Top 9 companies in the corporate travel industry. In Corporate Travel Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/corporate-travel-industry-statistics/#top-companies

report visual · Comparison

Total business travel spending by market

United States leads with $395.4B.

United States$395.4B
China$373.1B
Germany$80.1B
Japan$74.4B
United Kingdom$60.2B
France$46.9B
source-verifiedgbta.org

04 Statistics

Technology & Innovation

Technology adoption remains mixed: 35% of travel and finance managers exported travel-and-expense data to spreadsheets in 2026 across four markets. At the same time, 54% could view unified data in real time.

AI in the corporate travel industry

  • 35% of travel and finance managers still exported travel-and-expense data to spreadsheets to identify savings in 2026 across four markets.[1]
  • 100% of surveyed corporate travel CFOs were concerned about shadow AI in business travel in 2025, according to the Amex Global Business Travel survey.[2]
  • Only 5% of travel startups neither used AI nor planned to use it in 2026 globally.[3]
  • 54% of travel and finance managers could view unified travel-and-expense data in real time in 2026 across four markets.[1]
  • 82% of corporate decision-makers used generative AI regularly in 2025, while the figure was 93% among IT departments included in the comparison cited by the corporate travel AI survey.[4]
  • More than half of business travelers used AI for travel-related activities from inspiration through booking and rebooking in 2026 globally.[3]

Automation in the corporate travel industry

  • 80% of business travelers sometimes booked outside their company platform in the 2025 edition of the corporate travel and expense study.[5]
  • 45% of travel and finance managers still performed some expense review, approval or reconciliation manually in 2026 across four markets.[1]
  • 45% of business travelers called a person immediately when a travel disruption occurred in 2026 across four markets.[1]
  • 45% of travel and finance managers described their expense process as highly or fully automated in 2026 across four markets.[1]
  • More than 8 in 10 travel managers reported active or recent initiatives to upgrade travel technology in 2026, including expense-management and mobile-trip-management systems.[6]
  • 5% of business travelers handled a travel disruption entirely through self-service in 2026 across four markets.[1]

Digital Transformation in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 47% of hotels in Andalusia rated their infrastructure capacity for digital transformation as high or very high in the study period.[7]
  • 69% of lodging-technology survey respondents identified integrating new technology with legacy systems as a moderate or major 2024 industry challenge.[8]
  • 59% of active travel and hospitality respondents were at the piloting or deploying stage of AI adoption in Adobe’s global research.[9]
  • 80% of travel and hospitality respondents reported siloed, transactional, or consultative relationships between business and information-technology teams.[9]

Technology Adoption in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 14% of travel buyers said they were already using AI in their travel programs in the October 2024 GBTA poll.[10]
  • 83% of travel and hospitality executives said they increased AI budgets in 2024, according to the Skift-AWS industry survey.[11]
  • 89% of travel and hospitality executives expected generative AI to have a meaningful business impact within three years.[11]
  • 49% of global travel programs planned to increase technology investment for 2025, based on a GBTA poll of travel-industry professionals.[10]

Cloud Computing in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 67% of travel and hospitality companies were in advanced stages of cloud adoption in the 2024 Skift-AWS industry survey.[11]
  • 29% of hospitality respondents reported full cloud maturity for critical applications and workloads globally, while 38% said they were well on the way in 2023.[12]
  • 79% of travel and tourism companies surveyed by the World Economic Forum reported cloud computing among technologies expected to be adopted.[13]
  • 69% of hospitality respondents used a hybrid-cloud deployment model globally in 2023, compared with 31% using public cloud only.[12]
  • 67% of travel and hospitality companies were in advanced stages of cloud adoption globally in 2024, according to a survey of industry executives.[11]

Big Data in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • More than eight in ten worldwide travel buyers considered data analytics extremely or very important to their travel programs in April 2025.[14]
  • 62.8% of hotels in an Andalusian study rated their implementation of big-data tools as low or very low.[7]
  • 89% of travel and tourism companies surveyed by the World Economic Forum reported user and entity big-data analytics among technologies expected to be adopted.[13]
  • 18.8% of hotels in an Andalusian study rated their implementation of big-data tools as high or very high.[7]

IoT in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • IoT was among the technology categories assessed in a 2024 study of digital-transition priorities across hotels in Andalusia, Spain.[7]

05 Statistics

Data & Analytics

Data governance and consolidation drive analytics work: 44% of corporate travel buyers prioritized consolidating data from different sources, while 47% prioritized improving travel-data quality.

Business intelligence in the corporate travel industry

  • 69% of corporate travel buyers identified payment and expense solutions as external travel-data sources in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 44% of corporate travel buyers cited lack of time as the main reason for infrequent interaction with travel data in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 89% of corporate travel buyers identified travel-management companies as a major source of travel data in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 10% of corporate travel buyers used AI to collect, analyze, and report travel data in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 66% of corporate travel buyers identified online booking tools as external travel-data sources in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 60% of corporate travel buyers regularly checked dashboards and analyzed new travel data in the reported survey year.[15]

Data analytics in the corporate travel industry

  • 44% of corporate travel buyers prioritized consolidating data from different sources in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 47% of corporate travel buyers prioritized improving travel-data quality in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 77% of US business executives used data to track corporate travel-policy compliance in 2025.[16]
  • 36% of US business executives used automation for post-travel reporting in 2025.[16]
  • 44% of US companies used real-time budgeting tools to manage corporate travel and expense challenges in 2025.[16]
  • 81% of US business executives frequently used analytics to optimize corporate travel and expense costs in 2025.[16]

Data Quality in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 69% of travel and hospitality companies training AI models wasted resources on bad data in 2025, according to a Salesforce survey of business leaders.[17]
  • 27% of hotel operators used more than seven technology platforms in 2026, increasing the risk of fragmented and inconsistent operational data.[10]
  • 47% of business leaders were fully confident in their organizations’ data accuracy in 2025, across the broader business sample reported by Salesforce.[17]
  • 27% of hotel operators spent more than 11 hours per week consolidating or reconciling data in 2026.[10]
  • 15% of hotel owners and operators were very confident in the accuracy and timeliness of their operational data in 2026.[10]

Data Governance in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 91% of hotel owners and operators still relied on some manual reporting within automated workflows in 2026, highlighting incomplete process standardization.[10]
  • 78% of travel and hospitality business leaders said data-governance policies varied across departments in 2025.[17]
  • 97% of travel and hospitality business leaders said a strong data foundation was the most critical factor for AI deployment in 2025.[17]
  • 51% of hoteliers said regulation helped their commercial goals in 2025, while 20% said it hindered them, in a survey covering hotel distribution professionals.[18]
  • Only 11% of hotel owners and operators reported a fully integrated technology stack in 2026, indicating limited enterprise-wide data integration.[10]

KPIs in the corporate travel industry

  • 95.9% air-policy compliance was shown on Spotnana’s illustrative corporate-travel dashboard in 2023.[19]
  • 95.6% policy compliance was shown on Spotnana’s illustrative corporate-travel dashboard in 2023.[19]
  • 95.5% hotel-policy compliance was shown on Spotnana’s illustrative corporate-travel dashboard in 2023.[19]
  • 65% of C-suite executives ranked corporate travel cost savings among their top two priorities for 2023.[19]
  • 2.08 thousand kilograms of CO2 emissions were shown on Spotnana’s illustrative corporate-travel dashboard in 2023.[19]
  • 62% of travel managers said cost-focused metrics were the most important measures of corporate travel-program success in 2023.[19]

06 Statistics

Strategy & Growth

Spending growth outpaces trip volumes in the outlook, with 2026 forecast growth of 7.2% to $1.71 trillion and 1.84 billion business trips projected.

Growth in the corporate travel industry

  • Global business-travel spending was forecast to rise 10.4% to $1.638 trillion in 2025.[20]
  • Trip.com Group’s corporate-travel revenue increased 11% to RMB2.5 billion in 2024.[21]
  • Global business-travel spending was forecast to rise 11.1% to $1.484 trillion in 2024.[20]
  • Global business-travel spending was forecast to reach $2.004 trillion in 2028.[20]
  • Corporate Travel Management’s Asia business volume increased 8% in fiscal 2026.[22]
  • Corporate Travel Management’s Europe revenue and other income increased 34% to $113.7 million in fiscal 2026.[22]

Differentiation in the corporate travel industry

  • Only 3% of surveyed corporate travelers said they disliked business travel in 2024.[6]
  • One in seven corporate travelers extended a business trip for leisure three or more times in 2023.[6]
  • 7% of business travelers took more than ten business trips in 2023.[6]
  • Two-thirds of corporate travelers extended a business trip for leisure in 2023, creating a bleisure-oriented product opportunity.[6]
  • More than six in ten business travelers expected to attend at least one conference, trade show or exhibition in 2024.[6]
  • 77% of business travelers took one to five business trips in 2023.[6]

Mergers and acquisitions in the corporate travel industry

  • Navan acquired Italian travel company Regent in June 2024 to expand its Italian-market presence.[23]
  • Travel deal volume increased 75.0% in the first half of 2025 compared with the first half of 2024.[24]
  • Navan acquired German business-travel management company Comtravo in February 2022.[23]
  • Booking.com renewed its partnership with Etraveli Group in the first half of 2025 amid consolidation among online travel agencies.[24]
  • Travel deal value increased 38.2% in the first half of 2025 compared with the second half of 2024.[24]
  • Trip.com Group’s corporate-travel revenue rose from RMB2.3 billion in 2023 to RMB2.5 billion in 2024 alongside increased adoption of managed services.[22]

Strategic partnerships in the corporate travel industry

  • Corporate Travel Management reported $8.89 million in licensing revenue in fiscal 2025.[22]
  • Corporate Travel Management reported $206.3 million in service-fee revenue in fiscal 2025.[22]
  • Booking.com renewed its partnership with Etraveli Group in the first half of 2025.[24]
  • Corporate Travel Management’s North America revenue increased 4% to $322.5 million in fiscal 2025.[22]
  • Despegar entered a partnership with HBX Group in early 2025 to broaden lodging and travel-package inventory.[25]
  • Corporate Travel Management became the sole provider of the U.K. Government’s travel-management-company framework from January 2025.[26]

07 Statistics

People & Workforce

Capability and training constraints show up in adoption pressure: 41% of travel and finance managers cited employee training as a barrier to switching travel-and-expense platforms in 2026 across four markets.

Hiring in the corporate travel industry

  • 47% of corporate travel managers identified training and development as a driver of organizational activity in 2025.[6]
  • 33% of travel managers had been asked to adopt more strategic roles without additional training or education in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 41% of travel managers were likely to seek new opportunities within the following 12 months in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 52% of corporate travel managers identified new business initiatives as a driver of organizational activity in 2025.[6]
  • The 2025 Deloitte corporate traveler survey included 1,003 U.S.-based professionals who traveled for business in both 2024 and 2025.[6]

Employee retention in the corporate travel industry

  • 30% of travel managers planning to stay cited sustainability or budget cuts as their employer's primary focus in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 69% of surveyed U.S. CEOs said business travel helped employee retention in 2024.[28]
  • 41% of travel managers were likely to seek new opportunities within 12 months in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 75% of surveyed HR decision-makers said adding business-travel opportunities to job descriptions made them more attractive to applicants in 2024.[28]
  • 41% of travel managers planning to stay said their employer prioritized flexible travel options for employees in 2024 across six global markets.[27]

Remote Work in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across U.S. hospitality and food services, employees worked 10.19% of paid days from home in 2026.[29]
  • Across U.S. hospitality and food services, employees worked 11.11% of paid days from home in 2025.[29]
  • Across U.S. hospitality and food services, employees worked 10.23% of paid days from home in 2024.[29]
  • Among travel buyers, 7% reported a full-time remote company policy for 2024, compared with 15% among travel suppliers and travel-management companies.[30]

Hybrid Work in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among business-travel professionals in North America, 51% reported that their company had a hybrid work policy for 2025.[31]
  • Among business-travel professionals in Europe, 77% reported that their company had a hybrid work policy for 2025.[31]
  • Among business-travel professionals in the Asia-Pacific region, 62% reported that their company had a hybrid work policy for 2025.[31]
  • Among business-travel professionals in Latin America, 58% reported that their company had a hybrid work policy for 2025.[31]
  • Among travel buyers, 68% reported a hybrid company work policy for 2024.[30]

Upskilling in the corporate travel industry

  • More than 8 in 10 travel managers reported active or recent travel-technology upgrade initiatives in 2026, increasing demand for technology-related skills.[6]
  • 33% of travel managers had been assigned more strategic responsibilities without additional training or education in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 47% of corporate travel managers identified training and development as a major organizational driver in 2025 in the United States.[6]
  • 37% of travel managers reported difficulty maintaining high-quality travel programs under heightened stress in 2024 across six global markets.[27]
  • 99% of travel managers anticipated a challenging year ahead in 2024, highlighting the training and capability burden on the role across six global markets.[27]

Employee Engagement in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across New Zealand hospitality and tourism workplaces, 62% of employees with people-management responsibilities reported work engagement in 2025.[32]
  • Across Travel + Leisure Co.’s accommodation and hospitality workforce, the 2024 associate-engagement survey received 16,405 completions, representing 86% of associates.[33]
  • Across New Zealand hospitality businesses, 47% of employees reported work engagement in 2025.[32]
  • Across New Zealand tourism businesses, 60% of employees reported work engagement in 2025.[32]
  • Across IHG’s global hotel and corporate workforce, the 2024 employee-engagement score was 87%.[34]

DEI in the corporate travel industry

  • The 2023 social-inclusion survey of destination-organization professionals found a lack of workforce diversity across race, gender and neurodivergence, particularly in leadership, in the U.S. travel industry.[35]

08 Statistics

Customer & Sales

Retention and satisfaction remain measurable in large programs: Amex GBT reported 96% client-retention rate in 2025, excluding CWT, and a 15-year approximate average tenure for its top 100 clients.

Customer experience in the corporate travel industry

  • 72% of noncompliant millennial business travelers booked flights through online travel agencies in the United States in 2026.[6]
  • 83% of U.S. corporate travelers described business travel as enjoyable in 2023.[6]
  • 84% of U.S. SME travel decision-makers considered customer service an important factor when evaluating a travel-management company in 2024.[30]
  • 51% of U.S. corporate travelers ranked networking opportunities among the top three benefits of business travel in 2023.[6]
  • 40% of U.S. SME travel decision-makers ranked traveler safety as their company’s top business-travel priority in 2024.[30]

Customer retention in the corporate travel industry

  • 15 years was the approximate average tenure of Amex GBT’s top 100 clients by total transaction value, excluding CWT, in 2025.[36]
  • 99.2% was World Travel’s client-retention rate during its corporate-travel service transformation, according to the company’s case study.[37]
  • 95% of surveyed C-suite leaders said their companies would lose customers without in-person meetings, with an average estimated loss of 27% of their customer base in 2023.[4]
  • 96% was Amex GBT’s client-retention rate, excluding CWT, in 2025.[36]
  • 92% was Amex GBT’s customer-satisfaction score, excluding Egencia and Ovation, in 2021.[36]

Customer acquisition in the corporate travel industry

  • $3.3 billion was Amex GBT’s total new-wins value over contract terms for the twelve months ending in 2025, excluding CWT.[36]
  • 82% of U.S. SME travel decision-makers cited value or cost savings as an important factor when evaluating a travel-management company in 2024.[30]
  • 86% of U.S. SME travel decision-makers cited travel availability as an important factor when evaluating a travel-management company in 2024.[30]
  • 71% of U.S. SME travel decision-makers said their company was evaluating a travel-management company in 2024.[30]

Customer loyalty in the corporate travel industry

  • 99% of North American business travelers surveyed belonged to hotel loyalty programs in 2025.[14]
  • 80% of business travelers surveyed across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific belonged to hotel loyalty programs in 2025.[14]
  • 70% of European business travelers surveyed belonged to hotel loyalty programs in 2025.[14]
  • 75% of business travelers surveyed said employers allowed them to retain accommodation points earned on business trips in 2025.[14]
  • 75% of business travelers surveyed belonged to multiple hotel loyalty schemes in 2025.[14]

09 Statistics

Marketing & Brand

Digital booking channels dominate traveler paths, with more than 80% of business travelers booking accommodation through an online booking tool in 2025 across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

Digital marketing in the corporate travel industry

  • 67% of noncompliant millennial business travelers booked lodging through online travel agencies in the United States in 2026.[6]
  • More than 80% of business travelers surveyed booked accommodation through an online booking tool in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in 2025.[14]
  • 10% of business travelers surveyed used a mobile phone to reserve a hotel stay in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in 2025.[14]
  • 90% of business travelers surveyed booked hotel accommodation on a desktop or laptop in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in 2025.[14]
  • 83% of Amex GBT bookings were made through digital channels, including online booking tools, its mobile app and instant messaging, in 2025.[36]

Branding in the corporate travel industry

  • 67% of U.S. baby-boomer business travelers belonged to at least one airline loyalty program in 2026.[6]
  • The property’s brand was identified as a significant hotel-selection factor by many business travelers surveyed across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in 2025.[14]
  • 70% of U.S. baby-boomer business travelers belonged to at least one hotel loyalty program in 2026.[6]

Influencer Marketing in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • 92% of destination marketing organizations and tourism boards globally increased or maintained influencer-marketing budgets in 2026.[38]
  • More than 6.5 million influencer posts about the travel industry were published globally in 2023, generating an average engagement rate of 2.4%.[39]
  • 92% of European travel and hospitality brands work with micro-creators, defined as influencers with 10,000 to 100,000 followers, in research conducted across seven markets in 2025.[40]
  • 91% of hospitality brands include some form of influencer marketing in their brand strategy, based on a 2026 hospitality-sector survey.[41]
  • 49% of hospitality brands include paid influencer work in their brand strategy, up from 37% in the previous survey period.[41]

10 Statistics

Operations & Execution

Off-platform booking and manual work persist: 80% sometimes booked travel off-platform in 2026, while more than 60% of travel and finance managers still processed expense reports manually in the 2025 survey.

Process optimization in the corporate travel industry

  • 80% of business travelers sometimes booked travel off-platform, primarily to find better prices, in the 2026 corporate travel survey.[11]
  • 45% of managers still performed expense review, approval and reconciliation manually in the 2027 corporate travel survey.[11]
  • 48% of travel managers said their companies were optimizing business-travel practices to mitigate environmental impact in 2025.[6]
  • 57% of companies used a staff member for group-booking tasks in the 2026 corporate travel survey.[11]
  • 61% of employees still booked travel on off-platform consumer sites at companies with corporate booking tools in the 2024 U.S. SME expense survey.[4]

Operational efficiency in the corporate travel industry

  • 49% of Corporate Traveler's U.S. business trips were booked in advance in 2024.[42]
  • 82% of companies with global travel programs mandated a preferred booking tool in Mastercard's survey.[43]
  • More than 60% of travel and finance managers still processed expense reports manually in the 2025 corporate travel survey.[11]
  • 35% of business travelers said their online booking tool was mandatory, while 59% viewed it as a guideline, in Mastercard's corporate travel survey.[43]
  • 75% of travel decision-makers said their companies mandated use of a preferred booking tool in Mastercard's survey.[43]

Quality management in the corporate travel industry

  • Two-thirds of corporate travelers extended a business trip for leisure in 2023.[6]
  • About 50% of U.S. SME respondents identified lack of policy awareness as a major expense-program challenge in 2024.[4]
  • 90% of business travelers viewed corporate travel as an essential investment or necessary cost in the 2026 survey.[11]
  • Travelers who used apps to rebook disrupted flights or change hotel reservations reported higher satisfaction than travelers using phone support in Deloitte's 2026 study.[6]
  • 41% of corporate travel managers reported less than 75% employee policy compliance in the 2024 State of Corporate Travel and Expense survey.[44]

Supply chain in the corporate travel industry

  • 69% of companies contracted with preferred air carriers on a country-specific basis in Mastercard's survey.[43]
  • More than 80% of companies spending at least $50 million annually on travel contracted globally or regionally with preferred airlines.[43]
  • 55% of travel managers said negotiating hotel prices was more difficult because hotels were less flexible in their pricing models in 2024.[45]
  • 75% of companies contracted globally or regionally with preferred airlines in Mastercard's corporate travel survey.[43]
  • 36% of BCD Travel survey respondents represented companies with annual travel spending of at least $50 million in 2024.[14]

Outsourcing / Offshoring in the travel and hospitality sector (sector benchmark)

  • Six in 10 travel buyers worldwide relied on their travel management company for sourcing support in 2025.[14]
  • 54% of organizations across North America and EMEA outsourced some or all hotel RFP activities to travel management companies or consultants in 2026.[30]
  • Around three in 10 travel buyers worldwide engaged external consultants for travel-supplier sourcing in 2025.[14]
  • 9% of North American travel buyers and 13% of European travel buyers whose programs were not adding staff expected to outsource more work to third parties in 2025.[30]
  • 64% of European corporate travel managers outsourced at least part of their hotel RFP process in 2026.[30]

11 Statistics

Finance & Pricing

Price moderation is forecast, but rates still matter for program design: global average daily hotel rates were forecast at $166 in 2026.

Pricing strategy in the corporate travel industry

  • The average negotiated airfare was $602 in the 12 months ending May 2025, down 4.6% year over year.[46]
  • Corporate Traveler's U.S. clients paid an average of $836 per flight in 2025, down 6% from 2024.[4]
  • Corporate Traveler's U.S. clients paid an average of $75 per car-rental day in 2025, down 4% year over year.[4]
  • Corporate hotel bookings were priced at an average 20.9% discount to market rates in the 12 months ending May 2025.[46]
  • Average U.S. domestic airfare in 2023 was 8.5% above its 2019 level.[6]

Cost reduction in the corporate travel industry

  • 75% of U.S. SME respondents reported increased corporate-card distribution in the 2024 survey.[4]
  • 41% of companies pushed travelers toward cheaper lodging in 2026, down from 50% in 2025.[6]
  • 97% of U.S. SME respondents expected corporate travel spending to stay the same or increase over the following one to three years in the 2024 survey.[4]
  • Only 8% of travel managers decreased per diems in 2026, compared with 23% in 2025.[6]
  • 55% of travel managers cited booking compliance as a top cost-control measure in 2024.[6]

Profitability in the corporate travel industry

  • American Express Global Business Travel reported $2.4 billion in full-year 2024 revenue.[47]
  • American Express Global Business Travel reported $591 million in fourth-quarter 2024 revenue, up $42 million or 8% year over year.[47]
  • American Express Global Business Travel's full-year 2024 adjusted EBITDA increased 12% year over year.[47]
  • American Express Global Business Travel's 2024 total transaction value grew 9% year over year.[47]
  • American Express Global Business Travel's 2024 free cash flow was $264 million.[47]

Financial planning in the corporate travel industry

  • 43% of travel buyers said their companies prioritized airlines using sustainable aviation fuel in 2025, up from 33% in 2024.[6]
  • Nearly three-quarters of corporate travel managers expected company business-trip spending to grow in 2024.[6]
  • 64% of business travelers reported spending more on business travel in 2024 than in 2023.[20]
  • 58% of corporate travel managers expected company business-trip spending to grow in 2025.[6]
  • 55% of companies with more than $7.5 million in travel spend said they needed to reduce trip volume by at least 20% in 2025.[6]

12 Statistics

Product & Service

AI is now widespread in industry operations: 100% of surveyed travel-management companies had integrated AI into their operations in 2026 across 10 global markets.

Product development in the corporate travel industry

  • 100% of surveyed travel-management companies had integrated AI into their operations in 2026 across 10 global markets.[48]
  • 86% of travel professionals reported a positive business impact from AI in 2026, with faster product development and prototyping among the strongest effects.[3]
  • 30% strongly agreed that their budgets for real-time data and analytics were sufficient in 2026 among travel-management companies surveyed globally.[48]
  • 19% of corporate travel managers identified booking and trip planning as AI’s greatest near-term impact in 2026.[6]
  • 63% of corporate travel managers’ AI-impact responses covered traveler support, disruption management, and booking or trip planning in 2026.[6]

Product lifecycle in the corporate travel industry

  • 14% was the average corporate travel-budget increase reported by US travel managers in 2026.[6]
  • 85% of US corporate travel managers reported expanding travel budgets in 2026.[6]
  • 32% of travel-management-company leaders cited losing clients or market share as a key concern for the next three years in 2026.[48]
  • 95% of surveyed travel-management-company leaders were optimistic about business travel’s prospects over the following three years in 2026.[48]
  • 26% of travel-management-company leaders cited difficulty expanding into new verticals or markets as a major barrier in 2026.[48]

After-sales in the corporate travel industry

  • More than 25% of corporate travel buyers said they were considering switching travel-management companies in 2025.[4]
  • 57% of corporate travel buyers identified booking friction as a top challenge in 2025.[4]
  • 41% of corporate travel buyers reported inconsistent service from their travel-management companies in 2025.[4]
  • More than 80% of US travel managers reported active or recent initiatives to upgrade travel technology in 2026.[6]
  • 64% of corporate travel buyers reported issues managing exchanges and cancellations in online booking tools in a 2025 survey.[4]

Value proposition in the corporate travel industry

  • 57% of corporate travel buyers said travel data created value by optimizing spending in the reported survey year.[15]
  • 75% of surveyed companies used travel analytics to improve vendor negotiations or identify travel trends in 2025.[16]
  • 90% of business travelers surveyed in 2026 viewed business travel as an essential investment or necessary cost.[11]
  • 74% of surveyed companies measured return on investment for business travel in 2025.[16]
  • 56% of corporate travel buyers preferred leaving work with travel data to specialist professionals in the reported survey year.[15]

13 Statistics

Sustainability & Ethics

Sustainability targeting remains constrained by adoption: 48% of U.S. corporate travel managers said their companies were optimizing business-travel practices to mitigate environmental impact in 2025.

Sustainability in the corporate travel industry

  • 43% of U.S. corporate travel buyers said their companies prioritized airlines using sustainable aviation fuels in 2025.[6]
  • 33% of U.S. corporate travelers said their companies encouraged them to choose more sustainable business-travel providers in 2024.[6]
  • $50 per tonne of CO2e was McKinsey’s internal carbon fee on global air travel in 2024.[49]
  • 48% of U.S. corporate travel managers said their companies were optimizing business-travel practices to mitigate environmental impact in 2025.[6]
  • 50% was McKinsey’s reduction in business-travel emissions per full-time equivalent versus 2019 in 2024.[49]

ESG in the corporate travel industry

  • 1,640 sustainability-related client engagements were reported by McKinsey globally in 2024.[49]
  • More than 80% of reported CO2-emissions reductions were attributed by McKinsey to its clients in 2024.[49]
  • 18% of global GDP growth was attributed by McKinsey to its clients in its 2024 sustainability report.[49]
  • 67 countries were covered by McKinsey’s global operations and sustainability-related reporting in 2024.[49]

Carbon footprint in the corporate travel industry

  • 30,871 kilograms of CO2 were generated by Scott Tallon Walker Architects business travel in 2024.[50]
  • 46% of Bloomberg’s total emissions came from business travel in 2024.[51]
  • 724 tonnes of CO2e were generated by Hanken School of Economics business travel in 2024.[52]
  • 60,616 metric tonnes of CO2e were generated by Bloomberg business travel in 2024.[51]
  • 11,119 tonnes of CO2e were generated by EIB Group business travel in 2023, representing 71% of its gross mobility emissions.[53]

15 Statistics

Globalization & Expansion

Regional mix stays skewed toward Asia-Pacific: Asia-Pacific accounted for 40.8% of global business travel spending in 2024, with North America at 26.9% and Western Europe at 23.4%.

Globalization in the corporate travel industry

  • North America represented 26.9% of global business-travel spending in 2024.[30]
  • Latin America represented 3.6% of global business-travel spending in 2024.[30]
  • Middle East and Africa represented 2.0% of global business-travel spending in 2024.[30]
  • China generated 13.87 million outbound business trips in 2023, equal to 7.96% of global business trips.[62]
  • Emerging Europe represented 3.3% of global business-travel spending in 2024.[30]

Cultural adaptation in the corporate travel industry

  • Business travelers in 28 countries reported regional differences in corporate-card use, with Latin American, Asia Pacific and European travelers commonly using cards for 25% to 75% of trip expenses.[20]
  • Asia Pacific accounted for 40.8% of global business-travel spending in 2024, the largest regional share.[30]
  • 91% of business travelers with a formal corporate travel policy expected their company to accommodate their travel needs and preferences in 2023.[63]
  • 23% of U.S. business travelers were required to book through a designated corporate portal or agency, compared with 34% in Germany.[64]
  • North American travelers were less likely than travelers in other regions to use corporate cards through mobile wallets in 2024.[20]

Supplier management in the corporate travel industry

  • Direct bookings led hotel corporate room-night distribution in 2023 before GDS became the leading channel in the following analysis period.[65]
  • 66% of corporate travel buyers lacked confidence that they would obtain the airline content they needed in 2024.[66]
  • 45% of companies reported having sustainability targets for travel in a July 2023 BCD Travel survey.[14]
  • Access to and servicing of all content was the most important KPI buyers expected from their travel-management company in 2024.[66]
  • Corporate Travel Management reported $18.6 million in supplier-related contract assets at June 30, 2025.[22]

Stakeholder management in the corporate travel industry

  • 55% of corporate travelers identified general fatigue as a leading drawback of business travel in 2024.[6]
  • 51% of corporate travelers ranked networking opportunities among the top three benefits of business travel in 2024.[6]
  • 39% of corporate travelers identified work accumulating while they were away as a leading drawback of business travel in 2024.[6]
  • 58% of travel managers expected their companies’ business-travel spending to increase in 2025.[6]
  • 83% of surveyed corporate travelers described business travel as enjoyable in 2024.[6]

Distribution channels in the corporate travel industry

  • 40% of U.K. business travelers were required to use a designated corporate portal or agency in 2026.[64]
  • More than half of global business travelers had loaded their corporate card into a mobile wallet in 2024.[20]
  • Corporate travelers booking directly with hotels and airlines primarily sought an easier process when changing plans in 2024.[6]
  • Corporate travelers using online travel agencies were primarily attracted by better deals in 2024.[6]
  • 34% of German business travelers were required to use a designated corporate portal or agency in 2026.[64]

Key questions about the Corporate Travel Industry

What is the estimated global business travel market size in 2026?
Global business travel spending is forecast at $1.71 trillion in 2026.
How fast is business travel expected to grow in 2026?
GBTA forecasts growth of 7.2% in 2026 to $1.71 trillion, with 1.84 billion global business trips.
Which companies lead the corporate travel industry?
SAP Concur leads Gitnux's 2026 corporate travel ranking with an Overall score of 9.8, with leading travel and expense management software platform for corporates. Navan is the runner-up at 9.2, with more than 10,000 active customers for travel, expense, payments and managed travel.
What technology shift is most visible in 2026 corporate travel operations?
Managers report ongoing governance and automation needs: 35% exported data to spreadsheets in 2026, while 54% could view unified travel-and-expense data in real time in 2026.
How concentrated is the market structure among major providers?
Major corporate travel-management providers include American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel, CWT, FCM Travel, Navan, CTM, and SAP Concur, with Amex GBT increasing concentration after its September 2025 CWT acquisition.
How do traveler behaviors affect policy control and compliance in 2026?
In 2026, 80% of business travelers sometimes booked travel off-platform, and 45% of managers still performed expense review, approval, or reconciliation manually across four markets in 2026.
Reference

Cite This Report

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APA
David Kowalski. (2026, February 13). Corporate Travel Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/corporate-travel-industry-statistics
MLA
David Kowalski. "Corporate Travel Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 13 Feb 2026, https://gitnux.org/corporate-travel-industry-statistics.
Chicago
David Kowalski. 2026. "Corporate Travel Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/corporate-travel-industry-statistics.

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