The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2022 37 SKIFT + TRIPACTIONS CONCLUSION In 2020, Covid-19 changed the playing field for everyone participating in the corporate travel and spend communities. Yet even in the toughest moments of the pandemic, companies across industries found creative ways to cope, pivot, and keep the lights on. During the extended shift to videoconferencing and virtual meetings, organizations used the time to rethink and reimagine business policy, spending, and process, travel included, as they reckoned with a notional “new normal.” Looking ahead to 2022, clarity is replacing much of the uncertainty f rom the past year. The fundamentals of business travel remain rock solid. Instead of shaking foundations, the pandemic’s seismic disruption only cemented the corporate community’s universal, undying embrace of meeting and transacting business in person. As 2022 approaches, this year’s survey and accompanying research revealed that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” is the defining sentiment of the time. If executives and salespeople had not locked into the value of renting a car, boarding a train, or taking to the f riendly skies before, the forced takeaway of business travel provided a vivid awakening. The pandemic’s disruptions may linger in some corners of the industry for an indef inite amount of time. But corporate travel and spend are already