Global business travel professionals are cautiously optimistic as the industry enters the year ahead — despite concerns over balancing travel budgets with costs, and traveler safety and satisfaction.
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Organizations expect their corporate travel budgets to hold or rise, and anticipate modest increases in trip volumes and revenue. Balancing cost control with traveler satisfaction will remain a central challenge, however, along with managing traveler safety related to travel-disruptive situations. Potentially, new cross‑border requirements pose a risk to international mobility and employee willingness to travel.
This is according to the latest poll from the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) of 571 corporate travel buyers, travel suppliers and travel management company (TMC) professionals across 40 countries surveying their outlook and concerns for business travel in the year ahead. Key highlights from the GBTA January 2026 poll include:
Approximately six in 10 (59%) industry professionals polled — and consistent among buyers, suppliers, TMCs and regions — say they are optimistic about the industry this year. Globally, about a third (31%) of respondents, on average, cite a neutral outlook.
While the majority are optimistic, trade, cross-border and economic headwinds have left their mark on travel buyers — their outlook for 2026 is down 12 percentage points vs. coming into 2025 (based on GBTA’s November 2024 poll). (Editor’s Note: These concerns disproportionately affect international travel.)
A vast majority of buyers (84%) expect their organization’s business travel spending in 2026 to increase (44%) or stay at 2025 levels (40%). Among buyers who expect a rise, the average expected increase is 12%. Only 13% of buyers expect a decrease.
About one-third of travel buyers (35%) expect the number of business trips taken at their company to increase in 2026, while almost half (47%) expect levels to remain the same as 2025. Among those buyers anticipating travel volumes to increase, the average expected increase is 14%.
Compared to 2025, 42% of travel managers expect the number of employee travelers at their organization to increase in some capacity in 2026 — with one-third (33%) of those expecting an increase of less than 10%.
Additionally, 38% expect their organization’s number of business travelers to stay about the same as 2025, while one in five (18%) expect a decline.
Approximately, three-quarters (75%) of travel buyers expect their overall 2026 budget for travel management operations to increase (30%) or stay consistent with 2025 (45%). Among those expecting an increase, 20% anticipate less than 10% growth. However, 18% expect their 2026 operational budget to decrease.
Program cost savings and control is a bigger concern for U.S. travel buyers (74%) compared to other regions (62% non-U.S.).
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%).
Top concerns are relatively consistent across markets and roles. However, affordability (76%) and ease of entry/exit permissions (57%) are noted as most prominent among U.S. buyers.
In terms of cost and satisfaction, travel buyers most commonly cited as big or major challenges in 2026 balancing cost controls with traveler satisfaction (59%) and prices rising above budget (58%).
Protecting business travelers from AI scams is a bigger challenge cited by travel buyers outside the U.S. (36%) vs. in the U.S. (14%).
The U.S. government is proposing stricter Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) requirements for travelers visiting or transiting the U.S. from 42 currently visa-free countries, including mandatory disclosure of long-term social media, contact and family information, plus possible biometric selfies and a mobile app-only process.
Industry professionals are most concerned about managing travel to the U.S. (65%), increased challenges associated with sending people to the U.S. (64%), costs of doing business in the U.S. (63%), employee willingness to travel to the U.S. (61%) and challenges of hosting meetings in the U.S. (53%), according to the study.
For artificial intelligence (AI) initiatives in 2026, industry professionals cite pricing optimization (65%) and predictive analytics (64%) as the areas of highest interest. In addition, buyers believe AI’s current impact is primarily improving buyer data analysis and internal storytelling (45%), and automating reporting and analytics (42%).
Interest in AI-driven predictive analytics and dynamic pricing is significantly higher for buyers outside the U.S. (69%) than in the U.S. (59%).
The online poll was conducted from January 5 to 18, 2026, and drew responses from 571 GBTA members and non-members across North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Respondents represented organizations with global, regional and local responsibilities, and a wide range of business travel spend profiles.