Millennials Matter: New Corporate Travel Survey Calls out Trends for 2020

Lola.com, a young travel management company that provides a super simple way to book, manage, report, and save on business travel, has released, “2020 Business Traveler Preferences,” new research on the latest preferences and trends in corporate travel. Looking at a fast evolving landscape, the company surveyed over 1,000 business travelers in the U.S. to get a greater understanding of frequent travelers’ behavior, and how it’s changing. The research calls out three trends as potential game changers in 2020 – health and wellness, “bleisure,” and brand loyalty.

“Business travel is constantly evolving, and particularly as millennials join the business travel landscape in droves, their preferences are having a major impact on how business and travel suppliers approach corporate travel,” said Mike Volpe, CEO of Lola.com. “This latest survey data helps us to understand frequent business travelers’ needs and preferences as we continue to build the #1 rated travel management app in the industry.”

Boston Consulting Group forecasts that by 2020, millennials will account for close to 50 percent of all business travel spending. Millennials have unique tastes and habits, and are intrinsically tech-savvy and socially minded. And, they love to travel.

Wellness has been growing in popularity in recent years, and the trend is clearly seeping into the travel industry. Over half of business travelers prefer to bring their own food on flights, and only 18 percent of travelers noted alcohol as a top drink choice on flights. Regarding other healthy habits, 82 percent of frequent travelers said they exercise regularly at home, and nearly half keep up with exercise while on the road.

“Bleisure” travel is a growing phenomenon, the idea of extending a business trip to include some personal travel in the same area or nearby location. Over 50 percent of frequent travelers say they prefer to extend their business trip to include personal time, rather than come straight home after work.

Today’s corporate travelers are empowered pick the options that work best for them, instead of being forced to follow overly prescriptive travel policies. As a result, business travelers are more able to exhibit brand loyalty and control the time and manner of their corporate travel. Sixty-six percent of travelers reported flight time options as the number one priority when choosing an airline for business travel, and 66 percent reported pricing as second, with 62 percent reporting direct flight options as their third priority.

New technology is being released at record pace, and airport rules and acceptable travel behavior are ever-changing. This is the fourth travel survey that Lola.com has conducted with frequent business travelers, helping the company to keep pace. Frequent business travelers in this study are employed full-time in the U.S. and travel for business at least four times per year.