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Cost biggest challenge for 2025 new insight from corporate travel buyers reveals

by Business Travel Show | Jan 6, 2025

As corporate travel managers globally prepare for 2025, there is one issue impacting them above all others – cost. Whether it’s increasing costs, the pressure to reduce them, leakage, airline pricing or budget restrictions – cost is king.

While airline pricing was the leading cause of many a travel manager’s headache over the last 18 months, this has been squeezed into third place by the pressure of increasing costs and ‘distribution’, which has risen from fourth.

New in for 2025 are leakage and data/reporting. Dropping out of the top ten are accommodation pricing and the pressure to be more sustainable.

BTN Group Executive Vice President Louis Magliaro: “2024 has been an unsettling year geopolitically with elections in the UK, US and France among others and wars continuing to rage in Ukraine, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria. This has had a huge impact on the markets and costs globally have spiralled.

“It’s no surprise that travel managers are feeling the pinch or that it’s pushing sustainability further down the agenda for so many. ‘The pressure to be more sustainable’ has dropped out of the top 10 challenges overall and among respondents in the UK and the rest of the world. However, there’s no question we are all committed to travelling and managing travel more sustainably – we are seeing that through enhances to technology, access to data and investment in SAF, for example.

“While airline pricing was top of the challenges last year, the positive news is that we are beginning to see prices in key markets fall, and air capacity and competition is returning. It’s also interesting to see leakage joining this year’s top 10 – this was debated extensively at Business Travel Show Europe in June, as were all the key pain points and opportunities facing corporate travel managers. The show returns to London from 25-26 June. 2025 also sees the launches of Business Travel Show APAC from 16-17 April in Singapore, and Business Travel Show America in New Year from 15-16 October in New York.”

Leakage and data/reporting creep into top 10
Accommodation pricing and sustainability fall from 7 and 8 last year to leave the top 10

The table below shows newly released data from Business Travel Show Europe and how it compares to responses in June and December 2023. Buyers were asked to highlight the three biggest challenges facing them in 2025 from a multiple choice of 34.

2025 (Nov/Dec 24)		2024 (December 23)		2023 (June 23)
Pressure of increasing costs	28%	Airline pricing	30%	Airline pricing	22%
Distribution/NDC/One Order	22%	Pressure of increasing costs	29%	Duty of care/traveller risk	22%
Airline pricing	20%	Cost cutting	21%	Hotel/serviced accommodation pricing	21%
Budget	19%	Distribution/NDC/One Order	21%	Appointing new TMC	20%
Cost cutting	18%	Budget	16%	Pressure of increasing costs	17%
Data / reporting	15%	Appointing new TMC	16%	Globalisation	16%
Appointing new TMC	13%	Hotel/serviced accommodation pricing	14%	Availability	15%
Enforcing compliance	13%	Pressure to be more sustainable	10%	Enforcing compliance	14%
Leakage	13%	Duty of care/traveller risk	10%	Keeping up to date with legislation and restrictions	12%
Duty of care/traveller risk	12%	Enforcing compliance	9%	A change in my role	12%

The following table shows how the responses differ between travel managers in the UK, the rest of Europe and the rest of the world:

UK		Rest of Europe		Rest of the World
Pressure of increasing costs	30%	Airline pricing	24%	Pressure of increasing costs	35%
Cost cutting	20%	Distribution / NDC / One Order	24%	Distribution / NDC / One Order	26%
Demonstrating value	20%	Pressure of increasing costs	24%	Duty of care	26%
Enforcing compliance	20%	Budget	22%	Airline pricing	22%
Budget	18%	Data and reporting	22%	Cost cutting	17%
Distribution / NDC / One Order	18%	Cost cutting	17%	Dynamic pricing	13%
Airline pricing	15%	Appointing new TMC	15%	Hotel / serviced accommodation pricing	13%
Appointing new TMC	15%	Pressure to be more sustainable	15%	Keeping up to date with technology	13%
Leakage	15%	Leakage	13%	Budget	9%
Hotel / serviced accommodation pricing	13%	A change in my role	10%	Demonstrating value	9%