The State of Corporate Travel and Expense 2022 27 SKIFT + TRIPACTIONS opportunity to travel again as restrictions lift and comfort levels increase, we are encouraging our people, 60 percent of whom are currently remote, to travel. From the collaboration and camaraderie aspects to relationship-building and completing the deal cycle, travel is very important to them and to our clients.” As the challenges imposed by Covid-19 and its variants remain fluid and top of mind for the foreseeable future, another clear message is that travelers will need a dependable partner that can provide highly responsive support for all challenges, Covid-related or otherwise. In a June 2021 opinion piece for Security Magazine, Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue, a global leader in travel risk and crisis management services, stated that “hope is not a strategy” when it comes to duty of care and trip support. “Employers must be able to demonstrate they took a best practices approach for their business and their people,” wrote Richards, who also serves on the U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board at the U.S. Department of Commerce and is a Global Member of the World Travel and Tourism Council. “They cannot send their employees on the road and simply hope nothing bad happens.” Continuing, Richards stated, “Safeguarding your people is a big obligation. Business leaders are not experts in disease prevention and transmission, but they are now forced to make decisions during very difficult times. It’s been more than a century since we’ve had a pandemic of this scale. That’s why it’s imperative for business leaders to recognize the need for expert guidance and to work closely with specialists to plan and implement the necessary risk mitigation strategies for employee safety.” As the 2021 survey reveals, some travel managers have yet to get the proverbial memo. Only 35 percent of responding CTDMs cited the risk of Covid-19 as a problem, which points to a clear disconnect with travelers (above, right). What are the most common problems your em- ployees face when traveling for work? Corporate Travel Decision Makers This could owe to a lack of personal familiarity with, or misperception of, the realities of the in-trip experience. The more likely explanation is a gap in facilitated dialogue between travelers and program managers. The opportunity is to institute a feedback loop that helps CTDMs develop an in-depth, end-to- end understanding of the travel experience. Lack of communication may also be the culprit in the survey’s reveal of a disconnect over whether organizations did enough to keep employees safe during the pandemic. While 74 percent of CTDMs thought for the most part that their companies performed well in this regard, 66 percent of employees were less sure (next page, left). Flight delays Minimizing my risk of infection f rom Covid-19 or other diseases Flight cancellations Having to pay for travel expenses on a personal credit card Missed connections Lack of support for fixing problems while traveling Early check-in not available Issues with hotel reservations Oversold flights Late check-out not available Other 31% 35% 40% 30% 28% 23% 17% 16% 16% 15% 2%