The last year "before Corona" was particularly strong in the area of ​​business travel. This is the conclusion of the Austrian Business Travel Association in a current study based, among other things, on figures from Statistics Austria. However, Corona has changed pretty much everything.

Association president Andreas Gruber, who is full-time Head of Travel at Siemens Austria, therefore comes to the conclusion: "In 2019 we once again experienced a significant upswing before the crisis". A total of 2019 million business trips were counted in 8,1. That is 400.000 more than in 2017, the last reporting year. Austrian companies have spent 3,4 billion euros on business travel, an increase of more than 250 million euros. Of this, 1,5 billion euros go to airline tickets and almost 900 million euros to hotels. The cost per travel day was 173 euros compared to 166 euros in 2017. Travel has become more expensive.

The ABTA business travel study, which was published for the third time, linked two data sources: The survey “Vacation and business travel” regularly compiled by Statistics Austria, which records the volume of travel, and industry information that was made available to ABTA anonymously by a company pool. For example, around 450.000 tickets were included in the analysis for the development of flight ticket prices. Study author Wilfried Kropp (Kropp Kommunikation): "The strong database gives the ABTA study a special meaningfulness."

In the year under review, more company employees traveled than ever before. The travel intensity, i.e. the proportion of business travelers in the total population over 15 years of age, rose sharply from 17,2% (2017) to 19,5% in 2019 %) counted. In contrast, the number of overnight stays in Germany fell by 5,0%.

Cost development: more trips, higher prices

The fact that the providers, mainly airlines and hotels, have also used the increasing demand to raise prices, can be concluded across the board from the fact that the cost increases of 8,8% were around twice as high as the growth in business travel as a whole. This can be seen particularly clearly in the flight area. Here the ABTA has noticed contrary developments. The average cost per ticket for European flights fell from 452 euros to 388 euros (minus 4,2%). The strong competition at Vienna Airport probably put pressure on ticket prices here. In contrast, the costs for intercontinental flights rose from 1.299 euros to 1.330 euros (plus 2,4%). Austrian business travelers spent 7,9 million nights in hotels. This corresponds to an increase of 48.000 nights compared to 2017. Hotels were able to achieve an increase in average room prices of 4,9% during this period.

New business models at travel management companies

The ABTA takes the business travel analysis as an opportunity to look at some structural developments in the industry and to point out problems in the sale of business travel. The experts are concerned about the airlines' increased efforts to promote direct sales. This is not a new trend, but with new instruments such as "Continuous Pricing" (additional tariff offers between the existing booking classes) and further product differentiation, customers are directed to the airlines' direct digital booking channels.

The travel management companies (travel agencies specializing in business trips), who book flights on behalf of their customers, incur a high level of organizational and technical effort because they are forced to introduce alternative technical systems. Due to the Corona crisis 2020/2021, the current business model of travel management companies, which is based on transactions, is also wavering.

ABTA is outlining two new models that are currently being discussed between companies and travel management companies: A “subscription” model, with which a certain order quantity is agreed at a flat rate. As an alternative to this, a “network access fee” is being discussed, in which - similar to cell phone contracts - a low basic fee is charged per traveler in order to be able to use the basic service. Bookings or premium services are billed separately in this model. Peter Tolinger, Managing Director of Verkehrsbüro Business Travel GmbH and ABTA board member, is optimistic: “The companies with whom we are discussing the consequences of the Corona crisis are quite open to a new, cooperative model because they have just noticed the crisis how important personal access to experts is ”.