Or, as Christopher J. Nassetta (the president and chief executive at Hilton) stated, "People have to meet."This summer, leisure travel is booming back. The airline and hotel industries depended heavily on business travel to generate a significant portion of their revenue. This was because customers who made last-minute plans could be relied upon to pay higher prices for rooms and seats. The question now is not whether or not the pandemic will bring an end to the belief that business travel is essential, but how much it will be able to resume once Covid is under control.Even experts who were optimistic about business travel prospects a month ago have started to adjust their predictions. A survey of 1,200 American travellers, which Destination Analysts, an American market research company, conducted between July 21 and 23, captured the rapid change. It found that nearly 25% of business travelers expected the coronavirus situation would worsen over the next month. This is a significant increase from the 14% recorded just two weeks ago. The number of conventiongoers with health concerns rose while their confidence in their ability and safety to travel safely dropped.In late July, the U.S. Travel Association stated that it still forecasts a modest increase in business travel in the future. This means that the U.S. Travel Association expects that business travel will only reach 50 percent of its 2019 levels by the fourth quarter 2021.Scott Graf, the global president of BCD Meetings & Events said that due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant, there will be some cancellations and meetings being pushed back by weeks or even months.
