Navan’s inaugural Business Travel Index (BTI) found that business travel bookings on its platform rose by 15% year on year in the second quarter of this year, signalling a move towards prioritising more in-person meetings.
Broader travel declined by 1% in the same period, with overseas hotel spend increasing 17% year on year, exceeding the 12% growth in domestic US hotel stays.
This increase was driven primarily by the media & entertainment (43% growth year on year) and real estate industries (27% growth year on year).
Other key takeaways found that taxis and rideshare transactions jumped 22%, signalling a resurgence of employee travel.
Transactions for personal meals also rose by 10%, compared to a small decline of -0.1% for team events. This suggests companies may be reallocating travel budgets from larger internal gatherings towards more targeted, one-to-one business meetings.
The BTI, verified by Nasdaq economists, aims to be a new global indicator of business travel activity. It’s powered by millions of corporate transactions from over 10,000 businesses, captured through Navan’s business travel and expense management platform.
Nasdaq’s economics team has back-tested and verified the BTI, using its expertise in index construction and economic modelling. Navan believes that its validation supports the index’s credibility and value as a benchmark for business travel activity.
The index is built on data points tracking both spend and volume for domestic and international airline bookings, hotel reservations and business expenses.
The data shows that despite economic uncertainty, businesses are continuing to strategically deploy travel resources to bring people together when and where it matters most.
It also reveals that during peak leisure travel periods, such as summer and major holidays, business travel volume on the platform declines, rising again during spring and autumn which corresponds with corporate planning cycles and industry conference calendars.
The Navan BTI will be updated quarterly, offering visibility into corporate travel behaviours, giving business leaders actionable insights that are often missing in standard industry reporting due to the focus on consumer travel trends.
Beyond the industry metrics, the index is designed to provide deeper insights by isolating external pricing factors including fuel surcharges, currency fluctuations and inflation.
“With the launch of the Navan Business Travel Index, there’s now a clear, objective way to see how business travel activity stacks up against the broader market,” said Amy Butte, Chief Financial Officer at Navan.
“Our goal is to move beyond guesswork, giving everyone in the business travel ecosystem actionable insights on how companies are investing in travel. Whether you’re benchmarking against industry norms, assessing global market strength, or uncovering new growth opportunities, we believe this index puts the facts directly into decision makers’ hands.”
