Business travel is facing a fundamental change in 2025. The mix of ESG requirements, digital tools and a changed understanding of work presents companies with new challenges - but also great opportunities. Traditional travel management is becoming a strategic factor for companies that want to operate in a sustainable, efficient and employee-centred way.
If you want to optimise your business travel process, you need to understand new requirements - and respond to them with tailor-made solutions.
With the CSRD Directive, CO₂ analyses of business trips are no longer optional, but mandatory. Companies must disclose the ecological footprint of their business trips - and ideally actively reduce it.
This doesn't just affect large corporations: medium-sized companies are also called upon to make their travel policies more sustainable and implement climate targets in a measurable way. Tools such as CO₂ reporting platforms, targeted rail travel instead of short flights and sustainable hotel bookings help to reduce CO₂ emissions and create transparency.
Digitalisation has revolutionised business travel. Modern online booking tools such as Cytric, Atlatos and SAP Concur ensure efficiency and process reliability. Automated approval workflows, centralised data access and AI-supported analysis make bookings smarter, faster and cheaper.
Robotic process automation is also playing an increasingly important role in travel management: tools such as ROBODER automate recurring tasks - from data maintenance to ticket processing - and thus significantly reduce the workload of the travel team.
New Work is changing the world of work - and therefore also business travel. Employees expect flexibility, security and a good work-life balance. For companies, this means that travel security (duty of care), 24/7 availability and personalised support are essential.
Bleisure travel, i.e. the combination of business and leisure, is becoming increasingly important. At the same time, clear processes and a well-integrated travel policy are becoming more important than ever in order to maintain an overview and comply with guidelines - even with hybrid working models.
In 2025, travel management will be the link between corporate strategy, sustainability and employee loyalty more than ever before. Companies that focus on digital processes, clear responsibilities and transparent data at an early stage will gain a real competitive advantage.
The new world of business travel offers enormous potential, especially for SMEs - provided it is managed professionally. Those who act today will have a clear advantage tomorrow.
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