The business-travel paradox: more essential, more precarious

Key Points:

• Four in five business travelers experienced disruptions in 2025 – and more than half faced an incident or emergency, new research from Zurich shows.
• Business travelers are demanding more support and reassurance.
• Travel management and preparedness are now closely tied to employee trust, productivity, and even retention.

Business executives and sales teams continue to crisscross continents to seal deals and cultivate relationships, but they are doing so in a turbulent, unpredictable, and psychologically taxing environment, according to new research from Zurich Insurance Group (Zurich). The survey – of 4,000 international business travelers across eight countries and five continents – shows an industry simultaneously indispensable and fraught. More than three-quarters of respondents affirm what video conferencing could never replicate: face-to-face interaction remains irreplaceable for building meaningful business relationships. Companies pursuing growth in international markets have long understood that physical presence carries tangible strategic value. But this isn’t easy. In 2025 alone, four in five business travelers experienced some form of disruption during their journeys.

More alarmingly, over half encountered emergencies or serious incidents while abroad. What was once considered exceptional has become routine: climate volatility, geopolitical instability, cyber threats, and psychological strain now form the backdrop of modern corporate mobility. Often, one incident can trigger another and escalate quickly. According to Dominic Steptoe, Chief Product Officer at BOXX Insurance, the Zurich-owned global cyber insurance and protection company, “Leaving employees to manage a cyber incident alone while traveling significantly elevates stress, impacts employee mental wellbeing, and creates avoidable operational and personal risk.”

Are employees at risk during ‘bleisure’ travel?

The pressures reshaping business travel extend beyond safety concerns. Cost-cutting and carbon reduction targets are forcing organizations to scrutinize every trip, demanding that each journey justify itself financially and environmentally. This squeeze has accelerated a fundamental shift in how work and leisure intertwine during travel.

The phenomenon is not new – employees have long tacked weekend breaks onto business trips. What Zurich’s new research reveals, however, is a striking reversal: 56 percent of respondents now plan to add business travel to a personal trip. Rather than leisure piggybacking on corporate travel, work is increasingly infiltrating personal time, with employees apparently willing to foot the bill themselves.

These trends, which the industry collectively dubs “bleisure,” reflect the newfound integration of professional and personal lives. Yet this blurring of boundaries creates hidden vulnerabilities. Business travel policies typically provide comprehensive coverage: medical assistance, emergency evacuation, repatriation, and specialized assistance services. Personal travel insurance, by contrast, typically offers far more limited protection. When employees conduct business on personal trips, they may unknowingly expose themselves – and their organizations – to significant coverage gaps, finding themselves in a grey zone where neither corporate nor personal insurance adequately responds to incidents, ranging from missed flights to non-medical evacuations. “Companies and individuals should proactively check where business coverage ends and personal travel cover begins – no matter what type of ‘bleisure’ trip is planned,” says Luca Salmaso, Global Head of Accident & Health for Continental Europe and Canada at Zurich Insurance.

How to prepare for business travel

Perhaps most concerning is the gap between risk exposure and traveler preparedness. Over a quarter of respondents – including nearly a third of Gen Z business travelers – admit they are unsure or do not know how to respond to emergencies abroad. In an era when civil unrest can erupt, natural disasters can strike, and geopolitical tensions can strand travelers overnight, this knowledge deficit represents a serious corporate vulnerability.

The implications extend beyond immediate safety concerns. Employee confidence in their organization’s duty of care increasingly influences talent retention and productivity. Workers who feel inadequately supported during international assignments may decline future travel, hampering business development. In fact, 60 percent of business travelers surveyed would quit if they felt that their safety was not a priority when traveling.

Forward-looking organizations are responding by reconceiving travel risk management not as a compliance exercise but as a strategic investment. “Companies need to regularly assess whether their current travel-protection measures match the complex risk landscape their employees face,” says Adrian Leach, the CEO of World Travel Protection at Zurich Cover-More. “Resilience is not a product. It is an organizational behavior.”

This involves addressing mental wellbeing alongside physical safety, developing nuanced policies that account for individual risk profiles and destinations, and closing protection gaps through comprehensive coverage that considers the business-leisure spectrum.

The challenge in 2026 and beyond is matching the reality of business travel – unpredictable, hybrid, and inherently risky – with support systems that were designed for a more stable and clearly delineated world.

“There is still a significant share of the market that either does not buy business travel coverage or relies on embedded credit card travel insurance or injury workers compensation insurance,” Salmaso says. “But they have to remember that these solutions have significant gaps in protection and services.”

The question is whether corporate support structures can evolve quickly enough to match the new reality, one where disruption is routine, boundaries are blurred, and the journey itself has become as complex as the business it serves.

“For the traveler, risk is immediate,” Leach says, “but with proactive travel‑risk solutions behind them, they’re equipped to stay ahead of challenges and keep their journey safe and supported.”