Business travel is no longer just a line item in the budget. It is one of the most important investments a company can make in growth.
The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) projects global business travel spend will reach $1.57 trillion in 2025 and climb past $2 trillion by 2029. In GBTA’s recent outlook study of travel buyers and travel managers, 81% of travel buyers and 69% of travel managers, procurement, and sourcing professionals anticipate rising costs in airfare, hotels, and car rentals. Those are huge numbers. But the bigger question is: How do we ensure that money is working as hard as it should?
GBTA’s survey also shows that 27% of travel budgets go to sales, marketing, and partnerships, while 14% dedicated to internal company meetings with colleagues, and another 14% to conferences, trade shows, and industry events, all of which include consultants, brokers, and attorneys alike.
Likewise, GBTA’s expected 55% of travel budget allocations aligns with findings from Emburse’s 2025 Business Travel Snapshot, which also shows that nearly half of travel buyers expect to increase trips this year, with 57% anticipating higher spending.
We all know customer-facing travel drives growth, but when nearly half of budgets are spent elsewhere, leaders need to ask if those dollars are really delivering ROI.
From Cost Center to Growth Strategy
For too long, travel and expense have been seen as something to control, restrict, or cut. But the data tells a different story:
GBTA’s ROI study shows that every $1 invested in business travel can deliver $14.60 in operating margin, with trillions in potential sales unlocked if companies optimize spend.
Our business travel snapshot data also shows negotiated hotel and air rates are delivering double-digit savings in 2025, with hotel discounts averaging 21% and airfare discounts reaching nearly 17%. That’s money finance leaders can redirect toward higher-growth activities.
As a CRO, I know this firsthand. My teams are often responsible for the largest percentage of T&E, while also carrying the mandate to deliver growth and lead the innovation strategies that keep our businesses competitive. That dual responsibility means we can’t afford to think of travel as just an expense; we must treat it as a lever for performance and long-term value creation.
This blog breaks that challenge down into an intelligent way forward: how to turn business travel from a cost center into a growth driver that scales. We’ll explore where the dollars are going, how much value they’re delivering, and what leaders can do to ensure every trip contributes to business outcomes. In other words, this is Smart Travel Spend.
How Emburse is Changing the Game
At Emburse, we believe smarter spend begins with the user. If employees find expense management frustrating, the system breaks down. That is why our focus has always been on simplicity: capturing receipts in seconds, submitting expenses without friction, and making the process so seamless that employees barely notice it. All from one AI-powered unified, mobile experience.
For finance teams, it is about eliminating low-value tasks. No more chasing receipts or auditing line by line. Instead, we deliver automation and intelligence that allow teams to focus on insight and strategy.
And for executives, it is about trust. Our AI engine has already processed billions of receipts, giving leaders confidence that the data they are making decisions on is accurate and complete. This is Expense Intelligence at work.
The most exciting development is what comes next. We are introducing pre-submission AI intelligence that:
- Flags risks
- Policy violations
- Captures errors
…all before expenses are ever submitted. This gives employees real-time guidance, accelerates reimbursement, reduces exceptions, and lowers the audit burden dramatically. It is proactive intelligence that transforms the end-to-end experience and allows finance leaders to manage risk before it ever appears in the system.
The Road Ahead: Smart Spend
GBTA’s findings are the spark, but the bigger opportunity is still ahead. Later this year, we will re-launch our Smart Spend Industry Report, which blends global benchmarks with Emburse’s proprietary insights into how companies are actually managing travel and expense. This will be the second phase of a larger campaign to reshape the way leaders think about spend.
For me as a CRO, the goal is clear: help organizations align go-to-market, finance, and operations around a single truth. Travel is not just about moving people from point A to point B. It is about moving businesses forward.
At Emburse, we are building the tools and intelligence to make that happen, creating a world where spend is simple for employees and travel managers, efficient for finance, and strategic for executives. That is Smart Spend. It’s a level of support that’s earned us recognition as a Leader in IDC’s 2025 T&E MarketScape and a place on Inc. Magazine's 5000 list of fastest-growing companies.
I would love to hear how your organization is approaching travel ROI in 2025. What steps are you taking to turn travel from a cost into a driver of growth? Visit Emburse’s The Listening Post to share your feedback.
Michele Shepard, Chief Revenue Officer, Emburse
If you’d like to see how our solutions come together to support your team’s goals, book a demo here.