These new restrictive travel polices mainly affect international flights, overseas travel. For China, domestic travel will continue to grow. There may be a slight slackening but overall China domestic aviation can expect steady growth. Where the hammer falls is on international travel.
Not only is there a drop in the amount of business but the class in which passengers will travel is changing. First class is a luxury most companies simply do not wish to afford. And the move from business class to economy has become very noticeable.
There is no immediate end in sight. Only one-quarter of the travel managers surveyed anticipate spending more on travel in the next 12 months, down from 58% last year. A third said they anticipate the number of air miles traveled will decrease. Which means the international airline industry has a lot of pain to go through before it recovers. Only the China domestic market remains secure.
Meetings News said there also are stark differences in hotel spending expectations compared with past surveys. And global meetings expectations are dim. 45% expect their meetings numbers to fall.