Guernsey Press

Business travel ‘might never return to pre-pandemic level’

BUSINESS travel might never recover following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Published
The IoD midterm panel debate at St Pierre Park yesterday. Left to right, Martin Talbot, Alex Herschel, Matt Horton, Jonathan Creasey and Fiona Le Poidevin. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 29520030)

A panel of business leaders yesterday told the Guernsey Institute of Directors’ mid-term event that they did not expect such travel to return to pre-pandemic levels with technology increasingly used instead.

Research locally and globally also backed up this assessment, the event at St Pierre Park hotel heard.

Panel moderator Fiona Le Poidevin, former CEO at The International Stock Exchange, said a local IoD snap survey undertaken in the last week had found 60% of respondents – mainly from the local finance industry – expected business travel to reduce.

And a KPMG survey of global CEOs found 96% of respondents seeing sustainability and climate change impact as a top priority, and nine out of 10 wanted to lock in gains made in these areas during the pandemic.

Panellist Matt Horton, group head of private equity at fund administrators Aztec Group, was a very frequent traveller on business across the group’s six jurisdictions and beyond.

But he has little appetite to go back to that.

‘I speak for myself but that’s very much led by what we want to try and achieve as an organisation,’ he said.

‘I was travelling probably at times, at least twice a week. And we’ve seen lots of faces here at six in the morning waiting to leave or come back.

‘I actually don’t want to do it anymore.

‘So what I’ve said is to make travel count. That’s not just to go and see a client because you said you would. It’s about really thinking through, why would I travel to that meeting to really have a different experience than I could have on Teams or on the phone?

‘I’m actually seeing more people not travelling than I would if I was on the road, if you like.

‘On reflection I was finding I was going to Luxembourg or wherever, and I’d have a few hours with people in Luxembourg. But I’d end up on the phone back to Guernsey, or back to Jersey or wherever.

‘It’s actually bonkers on reflection. I think we just went down that route because it was easier. We partly enjoy it. But I think that is probably going to stop.’

Mrs Le Poidevin said: ‘I think you’re probably right. It certainly resonates.’