Forecast in flux: 2025 Deloitte Corporate Travel Study

Budget owners, like travel managers, paint a relatively cautious picture: sixteen percent expect their teams to travel less this year, compared to just 9% in 2024, but nearly all of that shift is accounted for by teams reducing travel by about 10%. The share expecting an increase dropped from 23% to 16%, and among those anticipating growth, the scale of expected increases declined (figure 2).

The corporate travel incidence rate—the share of professionals traveling for work—dropped from 36% in 2024 to 31% in 2025. Among those who do travel, trip-frequency expectations present a mixed outlook. Compared to 2024, more travelers expect to travel regularly (6 to 10 trips) or frequently (10 or more trips) (figure 3), but many frequent travelers anticipate a downshift, from three or more trips a month to just two. 

The frequent-traveler downshift is especially strong at surveyed companies with 1,000 or more employees, pointing to a key dynamic at play in corporate travel in 2025: Large companies appear to be pulling back more than smaller ones. Travel managers at one in five companies with annual travel budgets of US$7.5 million or more expect to cut spending this year, compared to just 6% of organizations with smaller budgets (figure 1).

These patterns play out against a backdrop of mixed and muted signals, suggesting an uncertain short-term outlook. CoStar cited lagging corporate demand in its recent forecast of a 0.8% decline in US revenue per available room.¹ The hotel-performance data provider also noted a 3% drop in group demand for the second quarter of 2025. For the same period, US airlines reported soft corporate-bookings growth.² Taken together, the data indicate that while travel is growing in 2025, the pace appears modest and is very unlikely to exceed the 9.6% US spend growth forecast by the Global Business Travel Association.³

Just as companies have varied approaches to growth and budget discipline, varied trends emerge in the purpose of travel. Corporate travel’s most common purpose is connecting with external stakeholders; new business development initiatives, in-person stakeholder engagement, and conferences all rank among the top four drivers of business-travel growth (figure 5). 

While a higher percentage of bigger companies cite in-person client and partner meetings as a major driver, smaller companies may simply be achieving stakeholder engagement through different means. More respondents from smaller companies select increased event attendance as a driver and report increasing their spend on conference travel (figure 6). For organizations with smaller budgets and fewer employees, live events present efficient opportunities to connect with multiple stakeholders over the course of a few days. 

Across respondents, live events remain a major universal driver of travel. Nearly two-thirds of business travelers expect to attend a conference in 2025, making it once again the biggest impetus for travel incidence.

The fastest-growing accelerator is an increased need for training and learning and development initiatives (figure 7). One in five travel managers cite it as their company’s top driver of travel growth in 2025, putting it on par with the increased need for face-to-face engagement with clients, partners, and vendors. Two-thirds say spending in this area is growing, compared to 54% in 2024. According to the World Economic Forum’s “Future of jobs report 2025”, 85% of companies are prioritizing reskilling as they race to adapt to new technology.⁴ Deloitte’s corporate travel surveys indicate that smaller companies account for much of the surge in training, as more than half placed it in their top three travel-growth drivers. One in four ranked it as number one, dwarfing the 9% of larger companies that did.

International trips account for about half of respondents’ spending, similar to 2024, but a significant shift in the destination mix continues. North America’s share has trended downward over the past two years, and that trend appears to be accelerating (figure 8). Some of this shift can likely be attributed to farther-flung destinations rising as organizations put pandemic-era restrictions and concerns behind them. But it also coincides with a sharp drop in Canadian and Mexican visitors to the United States in the first half of 2025.⁵

For bigger companies, drags on spend revolve primarily around two areas: higher prices, which 64% place in their top three, and sustainability commitments, cited by 59%. They are also more likely than smaller companies to point to lower event attendance and lower interest in in-person meetings among their client base.

Compared to 2024, cost-control measures have shifted to target lodging and in-destination spending more than flights (figure 10). Companies may be reacting to pricing trends: According to FCM Travel, corporate room rates rose in 2024, while airfare declined.⁶

Supplier relations are trending in an overall positive direction, with more travel managers reporting that suppliers have been accommodating and have sought to drive more volume, compared to 2024. More are also continuing to adopt dynamic rate structures (figure 11).

Among rogue bookers, online travel agency (OTA) usage has declined. This is especially notable among air bookers, where it has gone from 57% in 2024 to 49% in 2025, while both corporate channels and direct bookings with airlines have seen a modest increase. The drop in OTA use is most pronounced among millennials and Generation Z but is observed across age groups.

Responses indicate that user experience gaps between corporate booking tools and OTAs are narrowing. The share of OTA users who say they use the channel due to a superior shopping experience has dropped dramatically, going from 46% of OTA air bookers in 2024 to 27% in 2025. Corporate channels may also be making strides in customer support. The majority of travelers who recently made changes to flights booked through corporate platforms rate their most recent flight change experience as smooth or very smooth—an encouraging sign for program managers focused on compliance and user satisfaction.

Organizations’ tech adoption may also be supporting a move toward direct booking. A growing number of tools exist that enable businesses to connect off-channel bookings to their systems, while airlines and hotels have made a concerted push to attract more direct bookings from corporate travelers.