By Shauna Burns
In my conversations with finance leaders across the UK and Ireland, one shift stands out above the rest. Travel is no longer being discussed as a cost to control. It’s being discussed as a decision with consequences. That’s a meaningful change and it’s one I think is only going in one direction.
For a long time, business travel sat in a familiar place. Policies were set. Spend was monitored. Savings were tracked. And for a while, that was enough. But the environment CFOs are operating in now looks different. Travel is no longer routine, and it’s no longer taken for granted. Every decision to bring people together in person carries more weight than it used to. Which raises a more important question than cost alone: what is the return on being there?
Fewer trips. Higher stakes.
What we’re seeing isn’t a simple return to old patterns. Organisations are travelling more selectively. Routine trips are being challenged, internal travel is under more scrutiny and yet attendance at the right moments, key client meetings, major industry events, critical touchpoints, is being prioritised more than ever. Travel isn’t disappearing. It’s concentrating. And when it concentrates, its impact increases.
A 2025 GBTA study analysing over 3,200 firms found that companies taking a strategic approach to travel outperform their peers by up to 30% in revenue. The difference isn’t how much they spend. It’s how deliberately they spend it.
Travel and events are no longer separate decisions
One of the biggest shifts still not fully reflected in how many organisations are structured is the growing overlap between business travel and events. Travel is increasingly being driven by event participation, client engagement, and market presence. These aren’t operational decisions. They’re commercial ones.
Yet in many businesses, travel is still managed through a cost control lens, while events are viewed through a marketing or brand lens. That separation creates friction and often, missed opportunity.
The questions CFOs are starting to ask
The most effective CFOs I see are asking different questions, often in close partnership with their teams and external partners. Not just: how much are we spending? But: which trips genuinely create value? Where does in person presence drive revenue, not just activity? What happens if we don’t show up?
This isn’t about spending more. It’s about spending with greater intent.
A more useful role for travel
Seen through this lens, business travel becomes something more than a cost to be reduced. It becomes a driver of relationships, an enabler of high value interactions, and a direct contributor to growth. And importantly, something that can be measured not just in savings, but in outcomes.
Final thought
The challenge for CFOs isn’t whether to control travel. That remains essential. It’s whether the current model is asking the right people the right questions.
Research suggests that only around a third of travel managers have any meaningful influence over ROI decisions in their organisations. Which means the function closest to the data is often furthest from the strategy.
The organisations getting this right are treating travel as part of a broader commercial framework with genuine alignment across finance, commercial leadership, and the partners supporting them. That’s the work Identity Travel was built to support. Not just managing trips, but helping organisations understand what those trips are actually worth.
