For years, small and medium-sized businesses treated corporate travel the way they treated office stationery: buy it cheap, use it hard and never grow sentimental. The cheapest seat won. The tightest connection was good enough. Arriving bleary-eyed was simply part of the job.
That thinking is now being quietly escorted to the door.
New figures released by Corporate Traveller show Australian SMEs are overhauling the way they move their people around the world — spending more where it counts, blending work and leisure without apology, and using technology to back human service rather than replace it.
It is, in many respects, the professionalisation of a sector that once punched above its weight while travelling below its comfort.
Speaking at this year’s Flight Centre Corporate Travel & Expense (FACTS) forum, Corporate Traveller’s global managing director, Tom Walley, said SME travel programs now resemble those of large multinationals, just with far fewer hands on the wheel.
“Today’s SMEs face the same travel pressures as big corporates global routes, multi-stop trips, sky-high expectations for smooth journeys,” he said.
“The difference is they have fewer resources to manage that complexity. This makes friction-free travel with a travel management company on your side a real competitive advantage.”
In plain terms: the trips have become harder, the margins tighter, and the tolerance for disruption close to zero.
The New Upgrade Is Productivity
The most striking change is that SMEs are now prepared to spend.
Premium economy, long regarded as a luxury for executives with generous per diems, has surged 35 per cent year-on-year among SME travellers. The reason is less indulgence than exhaustion.
Research over the past 12 months shows 67 per cent of business travellers report productivity losses due to cramped seating and reduced flexibility. The impact is greater among senior managers and executives, where fatigue directly increases decision-making risk.
Walley says the penny-pinching logic of old is losing its grip.
“Companies are ditching the cheapest-fare approach – especially on long-haul,” he said.
“They’ve worked out that a well-rested employee in premium economy delivers much better outcomes than an exhausted one in economy. Productivity has become the new reason to upgrade.”
The subtext is unavoidable: tired staff are expensive staff. Missed meetings, dulled judgment and recovery days all carry a cost that never appeared on the original airfare.
Work Trips Now Come with Weekends Attached
If comfort is the new productivity lever, bleisure travel has become the quiet morale policy operating across much of the SME sector.
According to Flight Centre Corporate’s 2025 State of the Market survey, three in four SME travellers now add leisure time to business trips, often extending stays before or after work commitments.
In some cases, families now follow.
“Clever SMEs are using bleisure to cut employee fatigue and boost wellbeing. We’ve even observed families travelling with the employees to tack on a holiday at the beginning or end of a trip,” Walley said.
“Rather than fighting this trend, they’re using it as a talent retention and employee satisfaction tool.”
It marks another cultural shift. Where once a lingering Friday night overseas might have raised eyebrows, it is now broadly accepted as part of the cost of keeping people fresh and loyal in a tight labour market.
AI Does the Paperwork. People Do the Rescuing.
Despite the noise around artificial intelligence, SME travel managers appear to have reached a pragmatic consensus: machines for speed, humans for trouble.
“While others debate robots versus people, we know our customers want AI for smart logistics combined with human expertise for everything else,” Walley said.
“At Corporate Traveller, we say ‘automate the ordinary so our people can deliver the extraordinary’.”
Algorithms now handle approvals, compliance checks and itinerary changes in seconds. But when weather, strikes or cancellations collide at inconvenient hours and inconvenient airports, SMEs still want a person at the other end of the phone.
“AI handles the routine stuff brilliantly, but when your flight gets cancelled at midnight in Bangkok, you want a real person who actually cares about getting you home,” he said.
Technology may optimise the journey, but accountability still belongs to people.
Travel Is No Longer Just a Cost Line
Taken together, the trends point to a broader shift inside the SME economy. Corporate travel is no longer treated purely as a controllable expense. It is being repositioned as a tool of productivity, retention and business continuity.
SMEs now run increasingly complex global itineraries without the buffers that large enterprises enjoy. The margin for error is thin. The tolerance for disruption is thinner still.
And so the logic has flipped. Spend a little more on sleep. Lose a little less to burnout. Allow the weekend. Keep the talent. Use the software. Keep the humans.
As 2026 approaches, the Australian SME sector appears to have reached a sober conclusion: the cheapest fare often turns out to be the most expensive mistake.
By My Thanh Pham – (c) 2025
Read Time: 4 minutes.
About the Writer
My Thanh Pham has worn more travel hats than most luggage racks could hold. After taking a course in travel and tourism, she found herself deep in the business of arranging itineraries across South-East Asia, matching travellers to temples, beaches, and the occasional night train, with a knack for making the complicated look easy.
Not content with life behind the desk, she joined a Vietnamese airline, juggling reservations one day and the frontline bustle of the airport the next. It gave her a ringside seat to the theatre of travel: the missed flights, the joyous reunions, and the endless stories that airports never fail to serve.
These days, My Thanh has swapped ticket stubs for a writer’s keyboard at Global Travel Media. Her words carry the same steady hand she once brought to bookings, guiding readers through the rich, unpredictable world of travel.
