The International Business Travelers (IBT) Survey digs into policies and practices put in place to address the tracking, governance, compensation, travel, support and insurance coverage of business travelers.
The COVID-19 pandemic seriously affected the frequency and geographic scope of international business trips and, consequently, accelerated the use of virtual rather than in-person meetings. The health crisis has passed, but other concerns, such as climate and environment, security, tax and immigration compliance, and the associated escalating costs have become more prominent, triggering heightened scrutiny surrounding work-related activities that occur across borders or even across different states within a country. These activities raise governance and global coordination questions. Yet technological limitations and siloed teams can affect the efficiency of tracking processes.
The IBT complements our Alternative International Assignments (AIA) survey in a world where differentiation between mobility types may become complex and where global mobility teams get more and more involved in any type of cross-border work activities.
Data analyzed
- Trends, tracking, policy and administration
- Compensation and travel expenses
- Daily living costs
- Tax and social security
- Accommodation
- Hardship and incentive premium
- Other support
- Travel policy
- Insurance and travel safety and security
2024 edition selected findings
- 48% expect business trips to increase over the next two years (2024-2025), more than those who expect stability (44%) or decrease (8%), but less than in the 2018 edition.
- Yet limiting the number of business trips in favor of virtual meetings is the prevalent taken or planned to be taken action to promote sustainable international travel — half of respondents.
- 8/10 plan to introduce changes in their international business trips management practice in the next two years, driven by greater compliance and risk management needs. The most common change is about improving data management (i.e., accuracy, transparency, timeliness of relevant information) — 43%, a 10 percentage points increase from the last edition.
- Close to 2/3 reported that Global Mobility involvement in the management of international business travelers had increased, among the more than 70% of respondents who have a sense of the evolution of this involvement in the past three years.
- The highest risk business travelers are exposed to when travelling for business is about cybersecurity and private information protection (or lack of). More than two-thirds rated the risk as medium or high.
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