Executive Travel Planning Workload Statistics 2026

Executive travel planning workload statistics 2026 show why a trip cannot be measured by the few minutes it takes to confirm a flight. Before departure, someone has to compare routes, check policy, align the itinerary with meetings, secure approval, and record each reservation. A delay or cancellation can reopen the whole plan. Receipts and expense exceptions keep the work active after the traveler returns.

No current primary source reports a universal number of hours that an executive or assistant spends planning each trip. The available research measures traveler stress, disruption, program friction, booking behavior, and expense work. This article uses those findings as workload signals and labels calculations that are scenarios rather than published benchmarks.

Executive travel planning workload statistics 2026 at a glance

These studies cover different populations and methods. TravelPerk reports operational disruption data, SAP Concur combines surveys with a customer analysis, and GBTA surveyed travel managers. The figures should not be added together or treated as a single rate for executives.

Planning and booking create work before departure

SAP Concur reported on July 1, 2024 that 43% of business travelers in its 2023 survey considered the period before a trip, including planning, booking, and organizing, the most stressful stage. Another 24% chose the post-trip stage, including expense reporting.

Stress is not a measure of hours, but it points to where travelers feel administrative pressure. An executive itinerary may involve a preferred airport, loyalty accounts, meeting buffers, ground transport, hotel location, approval limits, and changes across several calendars. Comparing prices is only one part of the task.

The same SAP Concur article said 64% of respondents in its 2023 survey did not use a company tool to book travel. An off-platform reservation may still be valid, but it can create extra handling. Someone may need to copy confirmations into a calendar, verify policy, add the trip to a risk system, and preserve records for expenses.

GBTA's January 31, 2024 outlook poll found that 59% of travel buyers expected trip volume to increase in 2024. The poll received 707 responses from travel buyers, suppliers, and other industry professionals between January 9 and 22, 2024. Higher trip volume does not reveal the hours required per trip, but it increases the number of requests, approvals, itinerary checks, and receipts a support process must handle.

Disruption turns one itinerary into several rounds of work

TravelPerk's March 2024 report states that 79% of business travelers were affected by disruption in 2023. Forty percent experienced a delay longer than one hour, and 24% had a reservation canceled.

Those percentages describe travelers, not executive assistants. They also do not show how many disruptions required manual intervention. Even so, they explain why travel planning needs exception capacity. A changed flight can require a new airport transfer, a hotel adjustment, calendar edits, and messages to meeting hosts. A multicity itinerary can multiply that rework.

Travel managers see the same problem at the program level. GBTA and Cvent published a study on April 30, 2025 in which 55% of 166 US and Canadian travel managers reported at least some friction with managing travel disruptions. Fifty-four percent placed proactive disruption management among their three most desired innovations from a travel management company.

Current risk can also change plans before a traveler reaches the airport. In a GBTA poll fielded from March 25 to April 8, 2026, 50% of organizations reported route or itinerary changes in response to geopolitical conflict. The poll included 539 travel buyers, suppliers, and intermediaries. It measures organizations affected by a specific risk environment, not the normal change rate for every trip.

Expense administration extends the workload after the trip

GBTA's April 2025 travel-manager study found that 50% experienced at least some friction with expense reports. Expense work can include collecting receipts, matching card charges, assigning business purposes, checking policy, resolving exceptions, and sending the report through approval.

Volume is growing in at least one large expense platform. SAP Concur reported on April 30, 2025 that aggregate expense transactions rose 13% in 2024 compared with 2023. The analysis covers transactions in Concur Expense, so it should not be read as a 13% increase across the entire business-travel market. It does show more items moving through the sampled expense workflow.

Receipts are small records with a costly failure mode. One missing hotel folio or unclear meal charge can create several messages among the traveler, assistant, approver, and finance team. A useful workload measure is not just the number of reports submitted. Teams should also count missing receipts, policy exceptions, reopened reports, and days to approval.

What the evidence says about delegation value

The strongest available time-saving figures come from an IDC analysis of selected SAP Concur customers, summarized by SAP Concur on July 1, 2024. The article reports a 54% reduction in time needed to book a trip and a 43% reduction in time needed to complete an expense report after the organizations adopted the company's tools. Across booking and expense preparation, user time costs fell 48%.

These are vendor-reported results from selected customers. They do not prove that every company will save the same amount, and they do not isolate executive travel or assistant delegation. They do show that a structured process can reduce administrative time when compared with the customers' prior workflows.

Delegation can create similar process discipline when one trained owner manages the full trip cycle. An executive virtual assistant can collect preferences, prepare a short list of compliant options, place confirmations on the calendar, monitor changes, and organize receipts. The executive still decides whether to travel and approves choices outside agreed limits.

For teams that need broader administrative coverage, a virtual assistant can maintain traveler profiles, booking records, and expense trackers. The value comes from fewer executive interruptions and clearer ownership, not from claiming that every reservation takes the same amount of time.

A transparent workload calculation

The following is a scenario, not a published industry average.

Assume an executive takes three trips in a month. The company observes 75 minutes of planning and approval work per trip, 45 minutes of expense administration per trip, and one disruption that requires 90 minutes of rebooking and calendar changes.

The monthly workload is:

3 trips × (75 planning minutes + 45 expense minutes) + 90 disruption minutes = 450 minutes

That equals 7.5 hours per month. If trained support handles 80% of the coordination while the executive keeps 20% for preferences and approvals, the scenario returns six executive hours per month.

The assumptions drive the result. A direct domestic trip may require less work. An international, multicity itinerary may require much more. Companies should replace each assumption with observed minutes from their own workflow before making a staffing or savings claim.

How to measure executive travel workload

Track the full trip rather than the reservation alone. A simple log can include:

• request date and time to an approved itinerary
• number of options researched before approval
• changes after ticketing
• minutes spent on disruption and rebooking
• calendar or meeting changes caused by travel
• receipts missing seven days after return
• expense reports reopened for correction
• executive minutes spent on coordination instead of decisions

Review the log after eight to twelve weeks. Compare simple and complex trips separately. This avoids applying one average to a direct flight and a five-city itinerary.

Workload should also be read alongside the executive's wider calendar. The research on executive time management statistics for 2026 shows how meetings and communication already compete with focused work. Travel administration adds another source of interruption when ownership is unclear.

Frequently asked questions

How much time does executive travel planning take?

No cited primary source provides one universal number. The time depends on trip complexity, approval rules, booking tools, disruption, and expense requirements. Measure planning, change handling, and expense work separately.

How common are business-travel disruptions?

TravelPerk's March 2024 report says 79% of business travelers were affected by disruption in 2023. Forty percent had a delay longer than one hour, while 24% had a reservation canceled. These figures are traveler-level signals, not a prediction for every itinerary.

Which travel tasks can an executive delegate?

Researching options, checking policy, preparing itineraries, updating calendars, routine rebooking, receipt collection, and expense preparation can usually be delegated within clear approval limits. The executive should keep material budget decisions, personal tradeoffs, and go or no-go judgments.

Does travel software remove the need for support?

Software can reduce booking and expense time, but exceptions still need an owner. Disruption, policy exceptions, missing receipts, and meeting changes often cross several systems and people.

Sources

• TravelPerk, The Value of Business Travel Report 2024, March 2024
• SAP Concur, The Connection Between T&E Tools and Organizational Productivity, July 1, 2024
• GBTA, Business Travel Industry Anticipates a Strong but Challenging 2024, January 31, 2024
• GBTA and Cvent, Achieving the Perfect Business Trip, April 30, 2025
• SAP Concur, Concur Expense Data Shows Increased Spending in 2024, April 30, 2025
• GBTA, Global Business Travel Continues but Confidence Drops Sharply, April 2026