The level of optimism among global business travel professionals is lower for 2026 than for 2025.
The latest poll by the GBTA shows 59% of buyers, suppliers and TMCs say they are optimistic about the industry this year, 12 percentage points down on the same poll a year ago.
Globally, 31% of respondents, on average, cite a neutral outlook, again a drop on the previous year.
When asked about their key concerns, travel buyers are most concerned about the affordability of business travel (70%), followed by the ease of obtaining entry/exit permissions and visas (65%) and employee safety (56%).
Half (52%) of buyers are concerned about TMC service quality, but are slightly less concerned (42%) about overall internal support for the travel programme.
A notable number of suppliers (45%) are concerned about the willingness of travel and procurement managers to explore and change existing supplier/TMC partners in 2026.
In terms of cost and satisfaction, travel buyers most commonly cited as big or major challenges in 2026 balancing cost controls with traveller satisfaction (59%) and prices rising above budget (58%).
For 2026, travel buyers cite missing content in the booking tool (46%), figuring out AI (46%), and leakage (39%) as top operational challenges.
The online poll was conducted from January 5-18 2026 among 571 GBTA members and non-members across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East.
Respondents represented organisations with global, regional, and local responsibilities, and a wide range of business travel spend profiles.
