More than three quarters of German companies are only allowing business travel in “exceptional” cases, according to the latest barometer from buyer organisation VDR.
The survey of Germany-based travel buyers found that 77 per cent of companies were currently allowing their employees to travel in exceptional cases, such as for business-critical meetings.
While no buyers said that business trips were completely banned by their organisation, only 21.5 per cent said they were allowing unrestricted business travel.
A minority of buyers (10.7 per cent) said they were only allowing business trips within Germany, with another 14.1 per cent saying they were just permitting travel within Germany and to other European countries. The majority (75.6 per cent) said worldwide business travel was still allowed.
The VDR barometer also found that the biggest obstacles to travel continued to be health risks and complicated entry regulations to other countries.
Most buyers (70.5 per cent) said they would decide at short notice about lifting internal travel restrictions, depending on the pandemic situation.
Only 16.4 per cent of respondents expected internal company restrictions to be eased by the end of the first quarter of 2022 and another 13.1 per cent thought this would only happen by the end of June.
The barometer found that 39 per cent of buyers thought there was an “urgent” need for more business trips, while 28.8 per cent disagreed. Another 32.2 per cent said they could not guess at this point.
