Travel Trends report also reveals annual growth in spend and volume for domestic and international air travel as well as hotel reservations
Emburse announced today the results of its Q2 2023 SpendSmart Travel Trends report. This quarterly report tracks how much organizations spend on business travel, as well as trends for booking volume and trip length, and compares it to the previous year and the previous quarter.
In Q2 2023, business travel measures changed as follows:
- Volume of domestic flights booked: 30% up from Q2 2022 and 12% up from Q1 2023
- Amount spent on domestic flights: 22% up from Q2 2022 and 14% up from Q1 2023
- Volume of international flights booked: 86% up from Q2 2022 and 18% up from Q1 2023
- Amount spent on international flights: 92% up from Q2 2022 and 46% up from Q1 2023
- Volume of car rentals booked: 36% up from Q2 2022 and 25% up from Q1 2023
- Amount spent on car rentals: 224% up from Q2 2022 and 172% up from Q1 2023
- Volume of hotel reservations booked: 50% up from Q2 2022 and 15% up from Q1 2023
- Amount spent on hotel reservations: 50% up from Q2 2022 and 27% up from Q1 2023
The number of hotel reservations is up 50% over Q2 2022
In Q2 2023, business travelers averaged 4.18 nights per hotel stay. This reflects a 3% decrease in trip length over the same quarter in 2022 and a 3% decrease in trip length compared to Q1 2023. The number of hotel reservations is up 50% over Q2 2022 and 15% over the previous quarter.
The average nightly spend on hotels for business trips was $157.01, compared to $152.38 in Q2 2022. Spend on reservations overall was 50% higher than the previous year and 27% higher than Q1 2023.
Spend on Car Rentals More than Doubles Annually in Q2 2023
Car rental companies reduced their fleets during the pandemic lockdown and have not yet fully restocked. When the pandemic emergency was declared over in May 2023, a boom in demand for car rentals drove prices up exponentially, which is reflected by the data released today. This leaves corporate travel managers in a position to make difficult decisions about how to guide their employees for business trip transportation.
“The state of the car rental market is a great example of why we are making moves like our recent acquisition of TRIPBAM, which ensures that companies are getting the best rates on rental cars, hotels and airfare,” said Eric Friedrichsen, CEO of Emburse. “Business travel continues to rebound, but the economy we are in is different from that of 2019 or even last year. While our customers are lifting travel bans, they are still looking to maximize the value they get for each trip. And we're helping them by reducing the cost side of the ROI calculation.”
Emburse plans to continue monitoring these figures and updating them quarterly. The next SpendSmart Travel Trends report will examine Q3 2023 and will be available in October.
Access the Q2 2023 SpendSmart Travel Trends report here.