Business travel is back with a bang – at least in South Africa – with business travel numbers exceeding 2019 levels. This according to Euan McNeil, MD Flight Centre Travel Group South Africa, who says in a recent whitepaper, SME Travel Trends for 2023, that demand has returned a lot quicker and more aggressively than initially anticipated. “Business travel is back to pre-pandemic levels in terms of yield, while the cost-per-transaction is at record level highs,” explains McNeil. This means South Africa’s trajectory looks very different to the rest of the world where business travel is still lagging behind leisure travel, with global business travel spend unlikely to fully recover until at least 2026. It bodes well for the South African travel industry as we move into 2023 – especially if airline capacity increases and prices start to stabilise as supply catches up with demand. Of course, there are other factors at play, and while both McNeil and Bonnie Smith, GM Corporate Traveller, agree that the past two years have proved exactly how hard it is to predict the future, they believe the following will be important for businesses, bookers and travellers in 2023: The Cost of Air Travel Airfares will continue to be driven by market dynamics and the fuel price (with McKinsey reporting that the price of jet fuel has increased by approximately 90 per cent since the start of 2022). But Smith says that as flight capacity is added to meet demand in South Africa, prices should…
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