Business travel may resume within 6 months of lockdown lifting: Survey

A third of the respondents say they will not move employees to lower-tier hotels to save expenses, the rest say they might

A recent survey of over 500 industry leaders managing travel within their organisations found that 80 per cent of the respondents feel business travel is likely to bounce back to pre-Covid levels within six months of the lockdown being lifted. The study was conducted by budget hotel chain FabHotels. 

India's hotel market is more than $10 billion in size, and the the global pandemic is expected to leave corporate businesses with less money to spend on travel, lodging and entertainment. The FabHotels survey, conducted among its leading corporate partners, found that 58 per cent of corporates expect reduction of 15 per cent or more in their travel budgets, 19 per cent expect a reduction of less than 15 per cent in their travel budgets, and 24 per cent businesses expect travel budgets to remain the same post the lockdown. 

While one-third of respondents said they would not move employees to lower-tier hotels to save expenses, other two-thirds said they are expected to make this transition to reduce their travel budgets.

This survey covered companies across sectors such as IT, Pharmaceuticals, and FMCG. Nearly half of respondents in this survey had employee strength of more than 500 permanent employees. More than 10 per cent of the employees travel more than once a month at 45 per cent surveyed organizations. 

Not surprisingly, hygiene and sanitization at the hotels is going to become extremely critical in the decision-making process of corporates. As many as 93 per cent of respondents said they are likely to switch from unbranded to branded hotels post lockdown for better hygiene and sanitization requirements for their employees, while 88.4 per cent respondents said they are likely to re-evaluate their budget hotel partnerships post lockdown.  

“FabHotels has been at fore-front of understanding and fulfilling requirements of business travelers pan-India. Our partnerships with some of the largest enterprises is a testimony to that. We feel delighted that even in this grim environment, our enterprise partners are upbeat about a swift recovery in business travel at their organizations. Post lockdown, we once again intend to serve our customers in the best manner possible by providing industry-leading hygiene and sanitisation standards,” said  Vaibhav Aggarwal, Founder & CEO at FabHotels.