The business travel landscape in 2025 looks far different from 2019 — thanks in part to the rise of remote work since 2020. Here’s a glimpse into remote work’s influence on business travel and meetings, both the good and bad.
If you don’t personally work remotely or hybrid, you probably have colleagues and clients who do. Nowadays, it seems like hybrid and remote work is more of the norm than even fully in-office work.
Here’s a quick look at remote work’s influence on business travel and meetings.
Remote Work’s Influence on Business Travel and Meetings: The Good
According to a 2024 Global Business Travel Association survey, the majority of industry respondents (62%) said their companies have a hybrid model, allowing both work from the office and home in some form — and that’s impacting business travel and meetings in a big way. Here’s the good news.
Meetings and events are more likely to take a hybrid approach — making these events more accessible.
Per Business Travel News, event organizers are now more likely to take a hybrid approach to their events in the post-Covid world, and hotels are responding accordingly.
About half of meeting organizers who responded to a Business Travel News survey said that they expected to host hybrid events in the next year. As such, brands like Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott have all begun to take a more robust approach to their hybrid meeting venues, outfitting them with the tech necessary to make hybrid events possible.
The end result? Meeting planners and business Travelers enjoy a little more flexibility, the former with where and how they host events and the latter with which events they prioritize attending in person.
Virtual meeting mandates allow for cost savings.
A 2022 Travel Manager survey conducted by Business Travel News showed that more than 20% of respondents have a policy that requires employees to pick virtual meetings over in-person meetings in certain situations. This can lead to overall cost savings for Travel Managers, as it allows for travel spending to be reallocated and prioritized, negating the need for travel spending on low-impact trips.
The same survey found that, in 2023, nearly half of respondents expected to host hybrid events in the future. Nearly half likewise said that their organization was “committed to integrating technology to further virtual or hybrid meetings.”
Remote Work’s Influence on Business Travel and Meetings: The Bad
But for all the good of remote and hybrid work, this new mode of doing business isn’t all good and no bad. There are some potential downsides that Travel Managers will need to keep in mind and mitigate as necessary.
Travel costs could be higher.
According to GBTA survey responses, some Travel Managers have found that travel costs have increased with the rise of remote and hybrid work. That said, while Travel Managers may chalk these rising costs up to the simultaneous rise of remote and hybrid work, this may be an instance of commonality, not causality. As JTB Business Travel has covered in the past, business travel costs overall are rising, without regard to type of work.
Duty of care could become complicated.
Duty of care is a very important consideration for any Travel Manager, but hybrid and remote work can make this part of your job difficult. With employees spread out across the globe, it becomes even more crucial to apprise your teams of the various risks. You’ll need to consider how these risks impact your teams, particularly if team members are traveling autonomously without travel program oversight.
(This is where the duty of care experts at JTB Business Travel may be able to help!)
Remote Work’s Influence on Business Travel and Meetings: The Neutral
Then, there are the facts that are neither good nor bad. They’re simply neutral factors that Travel Managers will encounter and make of them what they will.
Travel Managers are rethinking their travel programs.
Again, GBTA surveying finds that hybrid and remote work is forcing Travel Managers to rethink their travel programs.
According to the Association, as of 2024, “Almost half (48%) [of industry respondents] say they have revised or plan to revise their company’s business travel policy [or] program because of remote [or] hybrid working. Among those, 27% have already revised their corporate travel policy [or] program, while 21% say they are working on it. Top program areas they are addressing related to remote [pr] hybrid employees include types of meetings allowed for travel (40%) and frequency of travel to an office (32%), as well as types of transportation (26%), per diems (22%) and accommodations (20%) that is permissible and can be reimbursed.”
Blesiure travel continues to grow.
While bleisure travel — or the combination of business and leisure travel into one travel experience — is nothing new, it does continue to rise. This is in part thanks to the growth in hybrid and remote work. This has been an ongoing trend since 2022, according to GBTA, with nearly half of Travel Managers noticing this demand among employees.
Business Travelers are traveling to new places.
As Skift reported last year, where business Travelers are traveling is also changing, due to the rise of remote workforces. Whereas, in the past, Travelers would be headed off to visit with clients or potential customers, now they’re making more treks into a far-away home office or headquarters.
Whatever Remote Work’s Influence on Business Travel and Meetings, JTB Business Travel Can Help
Whatever changes come in the year ahead for the business travel landscape, the experts at JTB Business Travel are here to help. Whether you’re looking to level up your travel partnerships to better meet your hybrid event planning needs or are unsure how to adapt your duty of care policies to protect your remote workers, we have the insights and solutions to help you succeed.
