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- Global study of corporate travel managers finds that invisible spend, fragmented content, and broken trust, not poor user experience, are the primary drivers of programme non-compliance
- APAC identified as the most fragmented business travel market, with booking workarounds creating hidden costs, compliance challenges and fragmented travel data
SINGAPORE, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Nearly one-third of companies using a corporate online booking tool (OBT) report that 20% or more of travel spend is booked outside the approved platform, with 53% citing missing content as the main driver, reveals new research from Trip.Biz, the business travel brand of Trip.com Group.
The findings, revealed in Trip.Biz’s newly released whitepaper, The Invisible Spend in Business Travel, highlight that many organisations assume spend is under control as long as they have a managed travel programme. The study however shows that gaps in content and cross-regional travel mean a significant portion of travel occurs outside the programme, resulting in “invisible spend”.
The research shows that leakage is often a content issue, not a behavioural one. Employees are not intentionally avoiding compliance, they simply cannot find what they need within the managed workflow. The result is an increasing pool of “invisible spend” – the gap between the travel spend managed through approved channels and the total travel spend a company incurs, reducing compliance, weakening duty of care and increasing reconciliation burdens for travel and finance teams.
According to the research, 93% of travel managers are confident that their corporate booking platforms offer complete and competitive content. Yet 69% report that travellers frequently find flights or hotels on consumer websites that are unavailable within approved corporate channels. Meanwhile, only 33% say non-GDS content is fully integrated into their primary booking workflow.
Together, the research highlights a fundamental trust gap: while most travel managers believe their programmes provide comprehensive access to travel options, travellers are still regularly finding options elsewhere, eroding confidence in approved booking channels. The findings also suggest that traditional approaches to reducing leakage – including policy controls, approvals and incentives – are often addressing the problem too late.
“Many organisations view leakage as a behaviour issue, but our research shows it often starts as a content issue,” said Tao Song, CEO of Trip.Biz. “Travellers go where the options are. If employees believe the best fares, routes or travel choices exist elsewhere, they will naturally look outside the programme. The challenge for travel managers today is not simply enforcing compliance, but earning the booking by providing the content travellers expect to find.”
APAC Highlights the Need for Regional Depth
The report highlights a particularly important challenge across Asia Pacific, where local travel ecosystems are often more diverse and fragmented than those in Europe or North America.
APAC recorded the highest reliance on alternative booking arrangements, with 44% of organisations reporting that cross-regional trips frequently or always require workarounds such as local agencies, direct supplier bookings or separate booking tools outside the global programme.
The research also found that:
- 82% of organisations use alternative booking arrangements for at least 10% of cross-regional trips
- Workarounds are most visible in markets such as Vietnam (53%), Japan (50%), and Hong Kong SAR (49%)
- Only 11% say global inventory access is fully consistent across all regions
- APAC has the highest share of non-flight and non-hotel spend, highlighting the importance of rail, ground transport, local mobility and other trip components
- Yet 87% of local transport sits outside the OBT
These gaps create significant operational challenges, particularly for multinational companies attempting to consolidate travel programmes across multiple markets and regions.
Invisible Spend Creates Invisible Risk
Beyond lost savings opportunities, the report identifies growing concerns around traveller safety, programme visibility and financial management.
91% of travel managers surveyed said incomplete trip capture negatively affects their ability to manage duty of care, risk monitoring or policy compliance. At the same time, nearly half of organisations spend more than 72 hours annually reconciling travel activity as a result of invisible spend, while only 18% report having fully consolidated travel reporting across regions.
A significant confidence gap also exists between stakeholders. Finance managers are nearly twice as likely as global travel managers to report limitations in measuring travel savings, reflecting ongoing challenges in quantifying programme performance when spend occurs outside managed channels.
Connected Data Will Power the Next Generation of Business Travel
The whitepaper argues that solving invisible spend requires more than improving user experience or tightening policy controls. Instead, organisations need broader access to integrated content sources, including NDC, low-cost carriers, rail providers, direct supplier connections and local travel inventory.
The report also identifies AI as a key enabler of future programme adoption. From conversational booking assistants and policy guidance to intelligent itinerary planning and spend optimisation, AI can help travellers find compliant options faster and reduce the need to book elsewhere.
Looking ahead, Trip.Biz expects agentic AI to play an increasingly important role in end-to-end travel management, helping organisations manage complexity, optimise supplier performance, automate routine decisions and generate deeper strategic insights from travel data.
The research also notes that ultimately, the effectiveness of AI depends on the completeness of the underlying travel data. Organisations that make invisible spend visible will be best positioned to unlock its full potential.
The full whitepaper: The Invisible Spend in Business Travel can be downloaded here.
About Trip.Biz
Trip.Biz, a digital-first full-service travel management company (TMC) powered by Trip.com Group, provides an all-in-one solution that streamlines business travel with human-centric technology and a people-first approach, offering extensive global content, exceptional service, and ESG solutions. As the fastest-growing TMC in the last few years, we have been trusted by over 15,000 multinational corporations and more than 1,000,000 small to medium-sized enterprises globally.
At Trip.Biz, we are dedicated to providing cost-effective and time-efficient travel solutions, empowering businesses to focus on what truly matters – growth and success. By saving on travel costs and time, our clients can invest more in their core operations and achieve their business outcomes.
