AHLA: 67% of Business Travelers to Reduce Trips Amid Rising COVID Cases

Business travelers in the U.S. are scaling back travel plans amid rising cases of COVID-19, according to a new national survey commissioned by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA).

The survey found that 67% of business travelers plan to take fewer trips, 52% are likely to cancel existing travel plans without rescheduling and 60% plan to postpone existing travel plans. Despite an uptick in leisure travel over the summer, the new survey highlighted the bleak outlook for business travel and events, which account for more than half of hotel revenue and aren’t expected to return to pre-pandemic levels until 2024, according to the AHLA.

“Hotels were already on pace to lose more business travel revenue this year than we did in 2020. And now rising COVID-19 cases threaten to further reduce the main source of revenue for our industry,” said Chip Rogers, president and CEO at the AHLA. “Hotel employees and small business owners across the nation have been pleading for direct pandemic relief for over a year now. These results show why now is the time for Congress to listen to those calls and pass the Save Hotel Jobs Act.”