By Bev Fearis, published 17/06/20

Business trips are on the rise again, according to travel data from employee safety software company Safeture.

Analysis of data from more than 140,000 international business travellers showed travel has doubled since mid-April, although it’s still well below last year’s levels.

The Swedish-based company took data from its cloud-based software security platform, which shows travel patterns using both bookings and positioning via mobile phones, and measured the length of business trips before the pandemic and during the period when restrictions were most strict.

Between March 13 and 23, two out of three trips were cancelled, bottoming out on April 6 when global travel was only a mere 10% compared to the same period a year earlier.

But Safeture said even before major countries loosened their restrictions, the number of kilometers per business trip doubled.

It predicts that as restrictions are eased further and flights resume, there is likely to be a very rapid increase in travel length, despite much of the world entering the summer holiday season.

“The past months have been tough for everybody and we have to expect a difficult year where all travel will be closely considered,” said CEO Magnus Hultman.

“In a way, all countries will have to be considered high-risk countries, which will require companies, organisations and authorities to take responsibility for who books what and where in cooperation with security platforms, travel companies and company security officers, travel managers and HR managers.”