Are corporate travel teams understaffed?

On November 3, GBTA published a study of 270 travel managers in North America and Europe, run with Cvent. Its headline number: 62 percent say their teams are understaffed. The median travel program has three full-time people. If you run a TMC, those three people are your client, and this study shows where their week is going.

What did GBTA's study find?

GBTA surveyed travel managers from September 22 to October 1, 2026. Nearly two in three call their programs understaffed. The share rises to 68 percent among the programs with the largest annual travel spend.

The teams are small. Programs average 4.9 full-time people who spend at least 75 percent of their time on travel, and the median is three. Bigger programs have bigger teams, and they still report the most strain.

GBTA's CEO, Suzanne Neufang, put it this way: "Companies need to ensure their travel teams are equipped for the expanding role they now have to play."

What work has landed on travel teams?

Travel managers now take part in work far past the booking. They are involved in these areas, though they are less likely to own them outright:

Meetings are moving closer to travel too. 39 percent say travel and meetings are more integrated than before, against 7 percent who say less. 23 percent have put both under one team.

Where do travel teams feel the gap most?

In specialist skills. 45 percent say most of their staff are generalists, and 20 percent say most are specialists. Dedicated roles are rare:

• Technology administrators: 17 percent have one full time.
• Hotel sourcing experts: 13 percent.
• Technology strategists: 10 percent.

Asked which competency they would most like to add, 35 percent named data analysis and reporting. That's the clearest signal for a TMC in the whole study. Your client wants better numbers, and you already hold most of them.

Who is leading AI in travel programs?

The answer is split. The travel team leads AI alone in 28 percent of programs and shares the lead with another department in 21 percent. Another team, such as IT or information security, leads in 13 percent. In 27 percent, AI has yet to find an owner.

Governance is still settling as well. 57 percent say their program falls under a company-wide AI policy, 15 percent say it sits outside one, and 17 percent are unsure. Microsoft Copilot and ChatGPT are the tools most in use, and GBTA found custom AI tools and Model Context Protocol much less adopted or understood.

What does this mean for a TMC?

A three-person travel team will hand you the questions it lacks the time to answer. GBTA's January poll already showed the pressure from the other side: 52 percent of buyers said they were concerned about TMC service quality. Here's where we'd start:

1. Send the report before they ask. A short monthly summary of spend by route, unused credits and policy exceptions answers the data gap travel managers named first.
2. Take the follow-up work. Track every open credit to its traveler and expiry, and check traveler profiles before the holiday weeks. Each item you close is one less task for a stretched team.
3. Have your AI answers ready. With 17 percent unsure whether a policy covers them, buyers will ask you where data is stored and who approves each action. Write those answers down once.
4. Ask about meetings. More programs are folding meetings into travel. Find out who books the room blocks on each account.

How firm are these numbers?

Firm enough to act on, with care. The study surveys 270 travel managers about their own programs. It reports North America and Europe together. GBTA notes that rounding can leave totals a point off 100. The full report sits on GBTA's research page, and it's worth reading before you quote a figure to a client.

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