International business travel professionals are growing more cautious about maintaining their clients’ safety and satisfaction amid a rise in international socio-economic tensions, especially in the US.
Global Business Travel Association’s annual member survey for 2025, revealed that while TMCs were trying to remain optimistic, their outlook for 2026 was down by 12 percentage points in comparison with 2025, due to trade, cross-border and economic headwinds.
Travel buyers were found to be the most concerned about the affordability of business travel (70%), followed by the ease of obtaining entry or exit permissions and visas (65%) and employee safety (56%).
Barriers to entry
The US government has proposed stricter requirements for both visa and now visa-exempt travellers using their Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (ESTA), which will require visa-free travellers to provide access to their social media accounts, contact and family information and biometrics. ESTA is applicable to UK, German, Dutch, Greek, Australian and Israeli passport holders.
Industry professionals were found to be the most concerned about managing travel to the US (65%) due to the increased challenges associated with travel to the destination (64%), the costs of doing business (63%), employees’ willingness to travel to there (61%) and challenges of hosting meetings (53%).
Rising demand
Despite this, 35% of travel buyers expect the number of business trips taken in their companies to increase and 44% expect their travel spend to rise. About 30% of travel buyers expect their overall 2026 budget for travel management operations to increase, especially for travel to the US.
In line with this, almost half (47%) of TMCs and suppliers expect to see increases in revenue this year.
“The results show an industry propelled by anticipated stronger demand and financial indicators, yet potentially constrained by external factors that could reshape business travel in the year ahead,” said Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA.
