Business Travelers Are Ready to Fly More. The Paperwork Isn’t.

A new survey from Navan and Skift suggests business travel is heading for a busier 2027, but not a smoother one. The poll drew 1,752 responses from travelers and from the travel and finance managers who oversee them, across four countries. Of the travelers surveyed, 58 percent said they expect to take more work trips next year.

The same share, 58 percent, named disruption as one of their leading concerns. Delays, cancellations and strikes have become part of the planning calculus, and the finding suggests that travelers are willing to go but are wary of what could go wrong on the way. For employers, that points to a growing need for rebooking support and clear policies when plans change.

Then there is the paperwork. Nearly half of travelers said filing a single expense report takes at least an hour, and 45 percent of managers reported still doing some part of expense handling by hand. That is a lot of time spent on a task that most people would rather not think about, and it sits awkwardly beside the industry’s pitch that travel can be frictionless.

The takeaway for companies is that demand is not the problem. If more trips are coming, the cost of clunky reimbursement and thin disruption support will scale with them. Because the survey was conducted by a travel-management vendor and a trade publication, it is best read as a directional snapshot of sentiment rather than a measure of actual 2027 bookings.

Sources: Travel PR News