New Zealand has seen the strongest recovery in domestic travel, reaching 80% of pre-COVID volumes, with South Africa and France claiming joint second place at 25%.
This was revealed in a white paper, ‘A fresh approach in a new world. What does it look like?’ released by FCM (Flight Centre Travel Group’s corporate travel brand). The White Paper examines the current state of the travel market across all FCM’s regions and the challenges facing corporate travel in 2021, including government restrictions, lack of content availability, a tightening of approval processes, stringent health requirements, and a hesitancy to travel.
South America and the Nordics show a 15%-20% recovery, while the US and Switzerland remain at 1%-10% of pre-COVID volumes.
Andrew Stark, md of Flight Centre Travel Group Middle East and Africa, says many companies globally are adopting a wait-and-see approach, wanting to gauge how other organisations are planning to return to travel. “South African companies are bolder in their approach and have shown a definite appetite for travel. Once the vaccine is more widely available, we expect to see a further stabilisation of the numbers,” he says.
Steve Norris, corporate md EMEA for FCTG, believes that tangible green shoots for corporate travel will follow a return in overseas leisure travel, which will make broader corporate travel feel safer. “In the UK, we’re projecting to reach our recovery targets by late September and into October, and we’ll continue to support our travellers in establishing their comfort levels for return to travel throughout.”
