Business travel jumps 15% as companies send workers back on road, Navan

Companies are bringing their employees back into the office — and sending them back on the road. The Navan Business Travel Index (BTI) shows business travel jumped 15% year-over-year. Additionally, the BTI showed a 54% increase in travel intensity since Q1 2023, the index’s baseline year.

Navan CFO Amy Butte conceived the idea for the BTI shortly after joining the company. When comparing data from Airbnb and major airlines to Navan’s numbers, Butte saw that they weren’t lining up. She realized that most companies do not differentiate between business and leisure travel, and there was no dedicated business travel data index — thus, Navan’s BTI was born.

“The launch of the Navan Business Travel Index provides a clear, detailed view of business travel activity on our platform, separated from the noise of consumer travel,” Butte wrote in a letter included in the BTI.

Travelers at a TSA security checkpoint inside the Jeppesen Terminal at Denver International Airport (DEN) in Denver, Colorado, US, on Saturday, Aug. 19, 2023. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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The Navan BTI is built on five core principles, which focus on robust data sources, a dynamic weighting system, a verified methodology, an accurate post-pandemic baseline, and Nasdaq validation.

The data points, drawn from millions of business transactions across more than 10,000 companies, track international and domestic airline bookings, hotel reservations and business expenses. Navan uses these data points and, through its dynamic weighting system, automatically adjusts for market volatility. Additionally, the methodology behind the index is “closely aligned with the Conference Board’s composite index approach,” according to the report.

Nasdaq Chief Economist Phil Mackintosh says the Navan BTI offers “a unique, data-driven look at how companies are investing in growth, relationships, and in-person collaboration.”

“This isn’t just travel data; it’s a window into corporate strategy and where the business travel industry is heading next,” Mackintosh said in the report.

Navan’s data revealed an inverse relationship between business and leisure travel. As holiday and seasonal travel goes up, business travel dips. Additionally, TSA data showed a 1% dip in overall travel, underscoring the emphasis companies are putting on face-to-face interactions. 

The BTI notes that a comparison between Navan and TSA data reveals insights not only into how much people are traveling, but also why they are traveling at certain times. As the report states, business travel spikes correlated with corporate planning cycles and industry conferences.

“What I think is most fascinating about that rate isn’t the number alone, it’s the growth rate relative to all other travel,” Butte told FOX Business.

The business travel and expense management platform observed that companies are taking more…