In Brief: More than half of business travelers book outside approved corporate channels due to missing content, leading to invisible spend, compliance challenges, and fragmented travel data, according to new research from Trip.Biz.
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Image Credit Trip.Biz
Study Overview and Key Findings
A global study conducted by Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group, has found that 53% of business travellers book outside approved corporate channels primarily due to a lack of available content. The research, released in the whitepaper “The Invisible Spend in Business Travel,” surveyed corporate travel managers and revealed that nearly one-third of companies using a corporate online booking tool (OBT) report that 20% or more of their travel spend occurs outside the approved platform.
The study highlights that invisible spend, fragmented content, and a lack of trust in booking platforms are the main reasons for non-compliance with managed travel programmes, rather than poor user experience. The findings indicate that many organizations assume travel spend is under control with a managed program, but gaps in content and cross-regional travel options result in significant portions of travel spend being unaccounted for.
Content Gaps Drive Non-Compliance
According to the research, non-compliance is often due to content limitations rather than employee behaviour. Employees book outside approved channels when they cannot find the necessary travel options within the managed workflow. This leads to invisible spend, which is the difference between managed travel spend and the total travel spend incurred by a company. The result is reduced compliance, weakened duty of care, and increased reconciliation work for travel and finance teams.
While 93% of travel managers believe their corporate booking platforms offer complete and competitive content, 69% report that travellers frequently find flights or hotels on consumer websites that are unavailable in approved channels. Only 33% of travel managers say non-GDS (Global Distribution System) content is fully integrated into their primary booking workflow.
Regional Differences and APAC Market Challenges
The report identifies the Asia Pacific (APAC) region as the most fragmented business travel market, with a high reliance on alternative booking arrangements. In APAC, 44% of organisations report that cross-regional trips frequently or always require workarounds such as using local agencies, direct supplier bookings, or separate booking tools outside the global programme.
Additional findings for APAC include:
– 82% of organisations use alternative booking arrangements for at least 10% of cross-regional trips.
– Workarounds are most common in Vietnam (53%), Japan (50%), and Hong Kong SAR (49%).
– Only 11% report consistent global inventory access across all regions.
– APAC has the highest share of non-flight and non-hotel spend, with 87% of local transport bookings occurring outside the OBT.
These factors create operational challenges for multinational companies seeking to consolidate travel programs across different markets and regions.
Impact on Risk, Compliance, and Financial Management
The study notes that invisible spend not only results in lost savings but also raises concerns about traveler safety, program visibility, and financial management. According to the survey, 91% of travel managers believe that incomplete trip capture negatively affects their ability to manage duty of care, risk monitoring, or policy compliance.
Nearly half of organizations spend more than 72 hours annually reconciling travel activity due to invisible spend, while only 18% report having fully consolidated travel reporting across regions. There is also a confidence gap between stakeholders, with finance managers nearly twice as likely as global travel managers to report difficulties in measuring travel savings.
Role of Integrated Content and AI in Addressing Invisible Spend
The whitepaper suggests that addressing invisible spend requires broader access to integrated content sources, including NDC (New Distribution Capability), low-cost carriers, rail providers, direct supplier connections, and local travel inventory. The report identifies artificial intelligence (AI) as a key tool for future program adoption, supporting functions such as conversational booking assistants, policy guidance, itinerary planning, and spend optimization.
Trip.Biz expects AI to play an increasing role in end-to-end travel management, helping organizations manage complexity, optimize supplier performance, automate decisions, and generate strategic insights from travel data. The effectiveness of AI, however, depends on the completeness of the underlying travel data, with organizations that make invisible spend visible being better positioned to benefit from these technologies.
Download the whitepaper “The Invisible Spend in Business Travel”
