Nearly one-third of global travel managers anticipate a significant business travel volume slowdown as the result of recent U.S. government actions surrounding issues such as trade tariffs, cross-border policies resulting in increased detainment risks, reduced travel from U.S. government employees, U.S. travel advisories from foreign governments and increased entry restrictions, according to findings from a recent Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) poll of more than 900 global business travel industry professionals.
The decline in optimism in the current atmosphere of uncertainty anticipates a significant decrease in business travel volume and revenue.
GBTA Poll Highlights
Poll highlights from the GBTA survey published in mid-April include the following:
- Less than half of global buyers (44%) anticipate their organization’s business travel spending and volume in 2025 will not be impacted, compared to 25% of travel suppliers who say the same for their business travel revenue.
- Almost a third (29%) of global travel buyers expect a decline in business travel volume at their companies in 2025, averaging a 21% decrease. Additionally, a fairly large portion of travel buyers (19%) are uncertain about what the impact will be.
- 27% of buyers now predict a 20% decrease on average in their business travel spending this year. (Notably, with global business travel spending forecast to reach $1.63 trillion USD in 2025, that could represent a potential decline in spending of up to $88 billion.)
- 37% of travel suppliers and travel management company (TMC) professionals anticipate a decline of 18% on average in related revenue.
- Because of overall concerns, only 31% of global industry professionals remain optimistic about the overall industry outlook for this year, while 40% are neutral. This marks a significant decline from GBTA’s November 2024 poll where 67% of global industry professionals reported an optimistic outlook for 2025 and 26% were neutral.
“While the outlook for global business travel was incredibly strong coming into 2025, our research now shows increasing concerns and uncertainty within our industry, considering recent actions taken by the U.S. government," said Suzanne Neufang, CEO of GBTA, in a statement accompanying the release of the poll data. "Traveling for work plays a vital role in supporting business growth, resilient economies, strong diplomatic ties and valuable connections. Productive and essential business travel is threatened in times of economic uncertainty or in an environment of additional barriers and restrictions. This undermines economic prosperity and damages the many sectors that rely on global business travel to survive and thrive.”
Key Factors Contributing to Poll Outcomes
In her statement, Neufang added there are two key factors that could nfluence longer-term impact for business travel: If there’s sustained economic pressure or uncertainty weighing on company budgets and if cross-border travel and global workforce mobility to and from the U.S. are restricted.
Additional key findings include:
- 7% of buyer organizations have revised their corporate travel policies for travel to or from the U.S. since January 2025, and another one-quarter (25%) say they are planning to or will consider doing so in the future. 64% are staying the course
Additionally, up to 20% have or are considering cancelling, moving or pulling attendance from meetings and events located in the US. - 10% are planning or considering cancelling employee attendance at U.S. events
- When it comes to relocating meetings or events from the U.S., a total of 14% say their organization has already done so (8%) or is considering it (6%). Companies located outside of the U.S. are three times more likely to relocate meetings to somewhere other than the U.S.
- Respondents' top concerns for long-term impact of US government actions are related to economics─namely business travel costs (54%) and potential budget cuts (40%)─along with additional travel processing and administration needs such as visas or documentation (46%). This was followed closely by traveler-focused concerns such as employee willingness to travel to the U.S. and increased safety and duty of care (both at 37%).
- Additionally, when asked if they personally know someone whose trip has been affected by U.S. border or travel policy changes, 23% of global industry professionals say they do.
According to GBTA, a total of 905 responses were received by from global travel buyers, suppliers and other industry professionals across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Africa and Middle East for the poll fielded March 31 to April 8, 2025.
