There Is No Business Without Business Travel

This is a statement I use repeatedly because it expresses a fundamental truth about commerce: business has always depended on human movement.

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Ever since human beings began exchanging goods, skills and knowledge, they have travelled to find customers, suppliers, resources and opportunities. Long before the term business travel existed, hunters, farmers, craftspeople and merchants moved beyond their own communities to trade. Archaeological evidence showing the movement of materials such as obsidian, metals, salt, amber and precious stones over considerable distances demonstrates that organised trade networks existed thousands of years before written history.

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Modern business travel is therefore not an invention of aviation, multinational corporations or travel management companies. It is the technologically advanced continuation of one of humanity’s oldest activities.

I often say that nearly all of Europe’s important old cities were built close to rivers, lakes or the sea. This is not an absolute rule, but it reflects a powerful historical pattern. London developed around the Thames, Paris around the Seine, Rome around the Tiber, Vienna and Budapest along the Danube, Cologne on the Rhine, Lisbon on the Tagus and Zurich at the meeting point of lake and river.

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These waterways were the highways of their time.

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Before railways, motorways and commercial aviation, travelling and transporting goods over water was generally faster, safer and more economical than moving them over land. Rivers connected inland producers to regional markets, lakes created commercial meeting points, and seaports connected continents.

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The same logic shaped civilisations far beyond Europe. Mesopotamian commerce grew between the Tigris and Euphrates. Egypt depended on the Nile. The Indus supported cities and trade across South Asia, while China’s rivers and later its Grand Canal connected major centres of production and consumption. Across the Indian Ocean, monsoon winds created a remarkably sophisticated maritime trading system linking East Africa, Arabia, India, Southeast Asia and China.

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The old commercial city was not simply a settlement. It was a platform, a place where transport infrastructure, information, finance, warehousing, hospitality and human relationships came together.

Few people illustrate the historic relationship between travel and commerce better than the Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta.

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Leaving Tangier in 1325, initially to undertake the pilgrimage to Mecca, Ibn Battuta travelled for approximately 29 years. His journeys took him through North and East Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia, Central and South Asia, Southeast Asia, China, Iberia and, finally, across the Sahara to the Mali Empire. A recent Cambridge University study estimates that his journeys extended over approximately 75,000 miles, around 120,000 kilometres.[1]

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His Rihla, or chronicle of travels, is much more than the story of an adventurous individual. It is an extraordinary account of a commercially interconnected Afro-Eurasian world.

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Ibn Battuta describes ports, markets, merchants, currencies, ships, roads, accommodation, customs and courtly networks. In Dhofar, in present-day Oman, he observed a population of merchants who “live entirely on trade.”[2] Elsewhere, he recorded the international movement of Indian rice, Chinese silk and porcelain, African gold and many other commodities.

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His journeys were made possible by something resembling an early international business travel infrastructure: established trade routes, merchant communities, shared languages, religious and legal networks, letters of introduction, hospitality systems and trusted intermediaries. He travelled from one network to another, relying on relationships and reputation in much the same way that international business travellers still do.

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There is legitimate academic debate about the accuracy of some parts of the Rihla, particularly certain descriptions of China. Nevertheless, the work remains invaluable evidence of how connected the medieval commercial world had become. Ibn Battuta encountered merchants across an area stretching from Western Africa to China and across almost everything in between.

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The technologies have changed, but the underlying purpose is immediately recognisable: people travelled to exchange goods, obtain information, build trust, negotiate access and develop relationships.

The Industrial Revolution changed the scale and speed of business travel. Steamships and railways reduced travel times and made schedules more predictable. The telegraph allowed information to move ahead of the traveller. Modern hotels developed around railway stations and commercial centres, while travel agencies began organising increasingly complex journeys.

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During the twentieth century, automobiles, commercial aviation, payment cards, telephone networks and global hotel groups created the foundations of modern corporate travel. Computer reservation systems, and later global distribution systems, made it possible to search, reserve and manage travel inventory across multiple markets.

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Large organisations subsequently began consolidating their travel expenditure, negotiating preferred supplier agreements and appointing travel management companies. Business travel became a managed corporate category incorporating procurement, finance, human resources, security, taxation, expense management and duty of care.

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Yet for decades the traveller still experienced these elements as separate processes. A flight might be booked through one system, a hotel through another, approval requested by email, payment made using a corporate card and expenses submitted manually after the journey.

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The next transformation is intended to remove these divisions.

The direction of the industry is now clear. Travel management companies and technology providers are investing in, developing or combining end-to-end platforms that bring planning, approval, booking, payment, traveller support, expense management, security, reporting and sustainability data into one connected environment.

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This transformation is taking place across two increasingly competitive groups.

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The established global travel management companies, American Express Global Business Travel, BCD Travel and FCM, are modernising their traditional service models through proprietary technology, artificial intelligence, strategic partnerships and integrated digital ecosystems.

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American Express Global Business Travel and SAP Concur, for example, have joined forces to develop Complete, an AI-powered solution unifying “travel booking, servicing, and expense management capabilities.”[3] FCM describes its own platform as an “intelligent, connected ecosystem” intended to provide one seamless experience for travellers, travel managers, finance teams and other stakeholders.[4]

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BCD Travel must also be recognised as an important technology participant rather than regarded simply as a traditional TMC. Its technology ecosystem includes TripSource for traveller engagement and programme management, DecisionSource for data and analytics, BCD Pay for payment processes, and APIs connecting clients and external technology providers. BCD is integrating AI and natural-language processing into its technology environment and has invested in AI specialist AMGINE to accelerate its ability to deliver intelligent search, servicing, analytics and automation.[5]

At the same time, a newer generation of digital-first platforms is entering the market and challenging the established TMC model.

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Navan has built an integrated, AI-powered platform combining travel booking, corporate payments, expense management, reporting and traveller support. It uses AI across search, policy compliance, expense approvals, transaction routing and administrative workflows. Its rapid expansion demonstrates that a technology-led platform can compete directly for large international corporate travel programmes rather than remaining limited to small and medium-sized clients.[6]

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Perk, formerly TravelPerk, is similarly evolving from an online business travel booking platform into a broader travel and spend ecosystem. Its proposition combines travel, expenditure and events within one technology and data environment, using AI to enforce policy, monitor budgets, assign allowances and create expenses. This reflects the growing expectation that travel and expense should no longer operate as separate corporate processes.[7]

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WegoPro, which evolved from Travelstop, is developing a modern travel-as-a-service model that brings bookings, approvals, expenses and management information together on one platform. With a strong presence and market understanding in Asia and the Middle East, WegoPro illustrates how regional technology companies can use local knowledge, modern interfaces and integrated workflows to compete with global incumbents.[8]

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Tumodo is another digital-first entrant, particularly active across the Middle East and other developing corporate travel markets. Its platform brings flights, hotels, transfers, approvals, reporting and reconciliation into a single environment, with an emphasis on automation, financial control and integration with corporate finance systems.[9]

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Emerging Travel Group represents a further variation on this new competitive model. Through its technology ecosystem, including RateHawk for travel professionals and Roundtrip for corporate travel, Emerging Travel Group combines global inventory, extensive API connectivity, automated servicing and AI-enabled distribution. Roundtrip is positioned as an all-in-one business travel management platform, while the wider group uses machine learning and agentic AI for accommodation matching, recommendations, request classification, customer support and the prevention of booking incidents.[10]

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Felix Shpilman, President and CEO of Emerging Travel Group, describes the potential clearly:

“With travel remaining a highly fragmented industry, we see AI as a game-changer for behind-the-scenes processes.”[10]

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These companies do not all follow precisely the same business model. Some are full-service travel management companies, some are integrated travel and expense platforms, and others have emerged from regional booking, distribution or financial technology. What unites them is their ambition to remove fragmentation and make the entire journey, from initial request to final financial reconciliation, feel like one continuous process.

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The competitive pressure created by Navan, Perk, WegoPro, Tumodo and Emerging Travel Group is forcing the traditional global TMCs to move faster. At the same time, the established TMCs retain important advantages: global servicing networks, experienced travel consultants, complex fulfilment capabilities, negotiated supplier relationships, duty-of-care infrastructure and the ability to support large multinational programmes across numerous countries.

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The likely result is not the complete replacement of traditional travel management companies by technology platforms. It is a convergence of both models. Traditional TMCs are becoming technology companies, while digital platforms are developing the service, content, fulfilment and international capabilities historically associated with TMCs.

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AI can place relevant, policy-compliant options at the top of a search, estimate the total cost of a trip, automate approvals, detect lower prices after booking, match payments with reservations and receipts, anticipate disruption, support travellers through conversational interfaces, and identify irregular spending or compliance risks.

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As Daniel Dakessian of Amex GBT puts it:

“With AI-enabled software, you can find savings that would otherwise be left on the table.”[11]

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The greatest value of AI, however, will not come from adding a chatbot to an old process. It will come from redesigning the complete travel lifecycle around clean data, integrated systems and intelligent automation, while retaining access to experienced human support when disruption, risk or complexity demands it.

A technologically advanced TMC cannot create a seamless travel programme alone. Digital transformation must occur simultaneously within the client organisation.

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Corporate travel platforms need to exchange reliable information with HR systems, identity and access management, finance and ERP environments, corporate cards, expense platforms, security providers, sustainability tools and supplier databases. Employee profiles, cost centres, approval structures, travel policies and payment data must remain accurate and synchronised.

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If the client’s internal data is fragmented, outdated or inconsistently governed, even the most advanced TMC platform will struggle. Poor integration results in duplicated profiles, failed approvals, manual reconciliation, weak reporting and traveller frustration.

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Digital readiness should therefore be treated as a shared responsibility. The TMC must provide open, secure and integration-rich technology. The client must establish clear system ownership, data governance, process discipline and cross-functional cooperation among travel, procurement, finance, HR, IT, tax, security and sustainability teams.

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Technology is the bridge, but organisational alignment determines whether people can cross it.

The scale of the sector demonstrates why this transformation matters. The World Travel & Tourism Council estimated that worldwide business travel spending reached a record US$1.5 trillion in 2024, approximately 6.2 per cent above the 2019 level.[12] The Global Business Travel Association subsequently projected worldwide spending of approximately US$1.57 trillion for 2025.[13]

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These figures show that business travel is not a peripheral corporate activity. It is an important part of the global economic infrastructure, supporting airlines, rail operators, hotels, restaurants, ground transport, meetings, technology, payments and millions of jobs.

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But its value cannot be measured by expenditure alone. A productive journey may secure a contract, open a market, repair a client relationship, transfer knowledge, integrate an international team or allow decision-makers to understand a situation that cannot be fully appreciated through a screen.

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Digital communication can replace unnecessary travel. It cannot replace every human encounter.

The long-term future of business travel nevertheless depends on the industry confronting its environmental impact honestly.

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Voluntary commitments have produced useful initiatives, but they have not created sufficient consistency, comparability or speed. More rigorous sustainability regulation is therefore not a threat to business travel. Properly designed, it is essential to its long-term legitimacy and stability.

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Companies should be required to measure business travel emissions using consistent methodologies, include relevant Scope 3 emissions in corporate reporting, establish reduction pathways and make the environmental consequences of travel choices visible at the point of sale.

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The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards represent important steps towards requiring larger companies to report their environmental and social impacts.[14] Future regulation should go further by improving the quality and comparability of transport emissions data, limiting unsubstantiated environmental claims and encouraging investment in rail, sustainable aviation fuels and lower-emission transport infrastructure.

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Regulation must also distinguish between necessary and avoidable travel. The objective cannot be to eliminate business travel. It should be to make every journey count: replacing trips that create little value, selecting rail where practical, combining meetings, choosing more efficient routes and suppliers, and measuring the results accurately.

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AI can support this by presenting carbon information alongside price and journey time, identifying lower-emission alternatives and helping organisations understand which trips deliver genuine economic or strategic value. But AI requires credible data and clear rules. Without them, it can optimise convenience while leaving environmental consequences untouched.

From early traders following rivers and coastlines to Ibn Battuta crossing deserts and oceans, business travel has always been about more than physical movement. It has been about access, trust, knowledge and relationships.

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Today’s traveller may use biometric identification, mobile payment, real-time risk information and an AI-powered booking platform. Yet the fundamental purpose of the journey remains remarkably close to that of the ancient merchant: to meet someone, understand something, exchange something and create an opportunity.

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The history of business travel is therefore not a straight line from primitive transport to better technology. It is the story of how human beings have continually built systems that allow them to connect across distance.

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The next chapter must combine the best of these traditions: the human value of personal contact, the intelligence and simplicity of integrated digital platforms, and the regulatory discipline needed to preserve a safe and sustainable future.

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There is no business without business travel. There never has been. The challenge now is to ensure that business travel remains purposeful, accessible and sustainable for the generations that follow.

[1] Mary Baine Campbell, “Ibn Battuta,” The Cambridge Guide to Global Medieval Travel Writing, Cambridge University Press, 2025.

[2] Ibn Battuta, Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325–1354, translated and edited by H. A. R. Gibb, London, 1929, digitised by Fordham University’s Internet Medieval Sourcebook.

[3] American Express Global Business Travel, “Introducing Complete by SAP Concur and Amex GBT,” 6 October 2025.

[4] FCM Travel, “Global Corporate Travel Management Solutions,” platform description, accessed September 2026.

[5] BCD Travel, “Three Ways BCD Puts AI to Work for Managed Travel Programs,” 16 June 2025, together with BCD Travel’s newsroom and technology portfolio, accessed September 2026.

[6] Navan, “AI-Powered Business Travel and Expense Management,” accessed September 2026.

[7] Perk, “The Intelligent Platform for Travel and Spend,” accessed September 2026.

[8] WegoPro, “Wego for Business,” accessed September 2026.

[9] Tumodo, “Online Business Travel Platform,” accessed September 2026.

[10] Emerging Travel Group, “A Year of Growth, Innovation and Connection,” 3 April 2026, together with the Emerging Travel Group newsroom, “Roundtrip Strengthens Its Team in Europe,” 17 March 2026.

[11] Daniel Dakessian, quoted in American Express Global Business Travel, “Six Ways AI-Enabled Travel Software Can Help Small Businesses,” 20 February 2026.

[12] World Travel & Tourism Council, “Business Travel Set to Surpass Pre-Pandemic Levels to Reach a Record US$1.5 Trillion in 2024,” 10 October 2024.

[13] Global Business Travel Association, “Global Business Travel Industry Spending Expected to Hit New Record,” business travel spending forecast.

[14] European Commission, “Corporate Sustainability Reporting,” including the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and European Sustainability Reporting Standards.