India Corporate Travel Market Set to Hit $20.8 Billion

As a corporate travel consultant with more than seven years of experience, I have seen the Indian corporate travel business grow and change quickly. New studies say that India’s business travel market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8% from 2021 to 2026 and reach $20.8 billion by 2026. This amazing growth is due to many things, including the rise of MNCs, SMEs, and startups, rising demand for business travel, the move to digital, and changing corporate travel plans. Read below about “India Corporate Travel Market Set to Hit $20.8 Billion”.

As a business travel agent, I’ve worked with more than 200 companies in fields like banking, IT, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and consulting. Here are some of the most important things I’ve learned about the factors that are making India’s business travel market grow:

The Rise of New Age Companies

In the past ten years, India has seen a huge rise in startups, with more than 50,000 being formed. There are many unicorns and soonicorns in the startup scene, such as Oyo, Zomato, Nykaa, Delhivery, and more. Also, India is still the best place for multinational corporations to outsource their work. More money is being spent on business travel because of the growth of MNCs, Indian companies, SMEs, and funded startups. Business travel needs rise along with these companies’ growth as they hire more people, enter new markets, and expand their operations.

Increasing Business Travel Demand

Demand for business travel has gone through the roof as needs grow. From what I’ve seen, it used to be mostly CXOs who traveled for important talks and events. But now, companies are also ready to pay for mid-level and junior employees to travel to training programs, seminars, client meetings, and other events. Also, as businesses grow around the world, the need to move between countries is growing quickly. In fact, India spends almost 45% of its business travel budget on trips outside of India. In the last three to four years, the number of requests for business trips has gone up five times.

Digital Transformation of Corporate Travel

Since online booking systems, travel management companies (TMCs), videoconferencing, AI/ML-powered tools, and other digital innovations came along, they completely changed the business travel industry. More and more, businesses want to use corporate booking tools to automate travel management tasks, centralize data, add travel spend insights, and set travel policies. Based on my experience, businesses have been able to save up to 25% on company travel costs by going digital first.

Evolving Corporate Travel Programs

In India, business travel plans have changed a lot over the years. They used to be unmanaged and transactional, but now they are strategic and value-driven. Companies are working with TMCs to create all-around corporate travel programs that include travel policies, 24×7 help, visa support, favored vendor agreements, tracking travelers, and more. More attention is being paid to traveler safety, compliance, exposure, and experience. Also, I’ve seen a rise in the need for environmentally friendly business trips that focus on reducing carbon emissions, supporting local communities through tourism, and protecting the environment.

Key Factors That Cause Growth

I’ve talked to more than 100 corporate travel managers over the years, and here are some of the main things that are making India’s corporate travel market grow:

• Companies are focusing more on business growth, global supply centers, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activities that require a lot of travel.
• More and more workers at all levels want to travel for work, both domestically and internationally.
• Meetings, incentives, conferences, and exhibitions (MICE) are on the rise. You have to travel for things like yearly meetings, sales conferences, and leadership summits.
• High-growth industries include those in IT, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, cars, and more. Making a big difference in trip spending
• A lot of multinational companies and well-funded startups with flexible travel plans and budgets for business.
• The growth of Tier-II cities as new business hubs is also driving professional travel.
• Make in India, Digital India, and Startup India are government programs that encourage business travel within India.
• More work-related vacations and leisure trips to keep employees and boost output

Emerging Trends Shaping the Future

I think the following key trends will have a big impact on India’s business travel market:

• Personalization—Businesses are focusing more and more on making business travel programs more unique by using information about employees, their favorite travel spots, their travel persona, and other factors.
• Bleisure Travel—The lines between business and pleasure trips are becoming less clear because of policies that let people work from home and take longer business trips.
• Sustainable Travel: Companies are choosing trains over planes, places that are eco-friendly, and carbon offsetting to make eco-friendly travel more popular.
• Duty of Care: Through complete risk management strategies, companies are putting travelers’ safety, security, health, and well-being first.
• Hybrid events are a mix of real-life and online events that cut down on trip costs while increasing participation and reach.
• Automating travel policies—AI and machine learning are making it possible to automatically follow travel policies, get reimbursed, keep track of spending, and more.

The Perfect Storm

Overall, India’s corporate travel growth has been sped up by a perfect storm of more business, changing work cultures, technology, and smart travel management. Rapid growth of the startup environment and the presence of more MNCs have directly increased the need for business travel. Business travel is now seen as a big perk of the job and a chance to grow.

Also, companies are putting a lot of money into managing the whole travel journey because business travel is going from not being managed at all to being a strategic priority for the C-suite. At the moment, a big chunk of travel is domestic, but growth will likely come from foreign travel in the future. Business travel plans are becoming more flexible, personalized, experiential, and environmentally friendly thanks to technology. I hope you like reading “India Corporate Travel Market Set to Hit $20.8 Billion”.

Reports from the business world say that India will spend more than $20 billion on business trips in the next 5 years. We are moving into exciting times, and I think this high-speed growth phase will last for another ten years! As a corporate travel planner, I’ve seen this business change a lot. I’m excited to see what the future holds and help make it what it will be.