Business travel rebounds but not as fast as leisure travel

THERE is optimism that business travel may soon return in a significant way next year, notwithstanding the emergence of the Omicron variant that has thrown a spanner in the works for the general travel sector.

The reopening of borders in the West and Singapore's string of quarantine-free Vaccinated Travel Lanes (VTLs) had earlier sparked hope that firms would be more willing to resume cross border, physical meetings for their customer-facing executives. This was reflected by the rise in bookings and enquiries by corporate travel operators.

Steven Ler, UOB Travel Planners executive director, told The Business Times that the travel agency for executives has seen better than expected demand - about 20 per cent of pre-pandemic levels - compared to 3 per cent to 5 per cent before the quarantine-free VTLs were launched.