How Covid changed business travel forever

Plus: Richard Branson loses mother to Covid-19

Could Covid kill the business road warrior? It’s probably no surprise that business travel has taken a big hit during the pandemic. But what may be a surprise is that the trend is likely to continue. According to polling data, 42% of people who were frequent business travelers before the pandemic say they’ll never hit the road again. Bill Gates predicted that business travel could drop off as much as 50% - something that would cost the travel industry over $150 billion a year, if it holds true. 

One big reason for this: videoconferencing. Ever take a one-day trip for a one hour meeting? That type of travel is “probably gone for good,” travel expert Matthew Parsons tells Forbes writer Suzanne Kelleher. “The last two years, people have shown that they can work pretty well without traveling a lot,” he adds. “So the finance department's going to be really watching company time on travel in the future.”

But remote working technology may bring about a different type of travel - “bleisure.” Longer trips to new places made by people secure in the knowledge that they can continue working while they travel. Another business travel trend to look out for is “return to base” - trips where people who primarily work remotely find themselves, from time to time, going back to company headquarters for meetings, networking and retreats. Read more of our dive into the future of business travel here. Do you have comments or questions? Email us at health@forbes.com

More Covid News

Covid infections and hospital admissions are surging across the U.K. just weeks after restrictions were lifted, a concerning uptick experts say could be driven by behavioral changes, waning immunity and the rise of the more infectious BA.2 omicron relative.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer will donate all profits from its Russian subsidiary to Ukrainian relief efforts and provide only a humanitarian supply of medicine to Russia. 

New research finds that over 90% of patients hospitalized with Covid report neurological symptoms six months later. 

Researchers have now found solid evidence of a coronavirus variant that is a combination of delta and omicron. 

What Else We Are Reading

• People, Not Science, Decide When a Pandemic Is Over (Scientific American)

• How do we track COVID as people get tested less? (Popular Science)

• ‘Pandemic is not over’: ministers criticised for scrapping UK Covid surveillance (The Guardian)