Trump's new ban tipped to hurt business travel everywhere

MICE News

Thursday, 09 March 2017

More than 47 per cent of European travel professionals expect a business travel downturn for their companies, with 17 per cent already reporting cancelled business travel to the United States because of president Trump’s revised executive order on travel, according to a new Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) poll. 

Thirty-eight per cent of European business travel professionals said their companies would be less willing to send business travellers to the United States in the future because of the executive order and 45 per cent indicated their company will be less willing to plan future meetings and events in the United States. 

Nearly four in 10 (37 per cent) of US business travel professionals expect some level of reduction in their companies' travel for the same reason.

“There is always the risk that closing our borders sends the message that the United States is closed for business, and the results of this poll show the perception of the United States as a welcoming destination for business travel has been altered,” said Michael McCormick, executive director and coo for GBTA. 

“As we always say, security is paramount, but GBTA continues to be a proponent for expanding proven security programs and developing new technology to facilitate 'information sharing' among governments to ensure travellers are always vetted properly, making us all more safe and secure.”

Additional findings from the poll:

• 44 per cent of European travel professionals reported their organisation currently has employees travelling abroad who might be or are affected by the US travel ban.
• 20 per cent of European travel professionals reported company directives to cancel or delay travel of employees who are nationals of countries included in the ban.
• US travel professionals cited the potential for affected and other countries to respond to this ban, making travel more difficult for US travellers (51 per cent), complications in travel to the United States (44 per cent) and increased threats against US travellers abroad (41 per cent) as their top concerns for lasting impacts of the travel ban. These numbers were all marginally down from an earlier poll following the announcement of the first travel ban in January, where they were at 63 per cent, 56 per cent and 54 per cent respectively.
• US travel professionals expressed similar levels of support and opposition for the revised travel ban as they did for the original one. Just over half (52 per cent) of the  surveyed strongly or somewhat oppose this action, while 35 per cent strongly or somewhat support it, compared to 50 per cent and 38 per cent respectively in the first poll.