These two edges considered, along with artificial intelligence (AI), top-order issues to assess how the sector will behave in the immediate future.
After two years of working remotely and the dates of returning to the office being delayed several times due to overloads and variants of the disease, many companies are preparing to return to the office or work from home, or perhaps a mixture of both.
This is related to the forecast that travel, business, meeting and incentive tourism is about to take a major boost and rescue this segment of relevant economic importance for all nations.
Gone in many companies is the expectation that employees will be sitting in an office full time.
American Express is one of the firms declaring hybrid a leader, with 40 percent of its staff working from home in some capacity.
In addition, many technology companies are taking the leap to hybridization and working from home, while some declare that they do not expect to have a normal office desk again.
Without the traditional agency culture and corporate spaces, what does this mean for business travel?
According to the American Hotel & Lodging Association, even if the big conferences do not return, the trend to stay in a destination for an extended period beyond an in-person meeting is something that will continue to expand throughout 2022.
For New York University Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality School of Professional Studies Associate Professor Sean Hennessey, although it’s a bit early to call it a trend, we’re starting to see people, especially in technology, with the remote work as an integral part of their daily work.
Hennessey added that as the pandemic wears off, there will be a more natural inclination to want to see people and catch up on everyday conversations in person. Hotel markets in several cities picked up, and started to recover, although office occupancy is nowhere near where it was before the health situation.
For his part, the president and CEO of the American Association of Hotels and Lodging, Chip Rogers, said that Bleisure trips (combination of leisure and business) have already been classified as a Silver Pandemic.
Hence, these expert criteria may have a more in-depth analysis in a short time, and be treated as a trend in terms of shaping the presence in meetings with the digital, as is currently done in practice, possible inclination in the future.
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