Hotel and airline reservations for business travel CV, with hesitation

“I may be optimistic,” he added, “but I hope that the progress of immunization increases dramatically over the next 60-90 days and that the fourth quarter and early 2022 will still be enough. solid. “

Mr. Graf is among the few who believe that hybrid business events, involving both in-person and virtual presence, will disappear in the long run. Hybrid events “aren’t that effective,” he said. “They are more expensive and more complex than if they were just virtual or face-to-face. And people have virtual fatigue.

Peter Caputo, US hospitality industry leader at Deloitte, agreed that networking “is often invaluable” and difficult to replace with virtual means. But certain types of events, such as educational programs, can be successful online, he said.

Business travel has started to return this summer. Delta Air Lines “was starting to see a return of advisory and sales-related travel and higher volumes in traditionally business-rich markets like New York and Boston,” the carrier’s president, Glen Hauenstein, said in mid-June. July.

American and United Airlines also reported a slight increase in business travel and said they expected them to continue to increase later this year.

“The majority of our corporate accounts have shared their expectations for the fall travel resumption, and we expect a full business travel recovery in 2022,” Rachel Warner, a US spokeswoman said last week.

After a rush of leisure travelers this summer, hotels said they were also starting to get more business travel bookings for the fall. Before the pandemic, 20% of Hilton’s revenue was generated by groups and events of all types, including social events, and about 55% by individual business travelers, said Frank Passanante, senior vice president of Hilton Worldwide Sales, the Americas.