The hotel industry in 2021 is projected to receive $59 billion less in business travel revenue compared with 2019, according to a report from the American Hotel & Lodging Association and Kalibri Labs released Wednesday. The association estimated that the decline is on top of the $49 billion decline in business travel revenue in 2020 from 2019.

Business travel is the hotel industry’s largest source of revenue, and it includes corporate, group, government and other commercial categories, according to AHLA. Some analysts and executives don’t expect business travel to reach pre-pandemic levels until 2024.

“Business travel is critical to our industry’s viability, especially in the fall and winter months when leisure travel normally begins to decline,” said AHLA president and CEO Chip Rogers in a statement. “Continued Covid-19 concerns among travelers will only exacerbate these challenges.”

The markets projected to have the steepest declines in hotel business travel revenues in 2021 compared with 2019 according to the report include New York (down $4 billion, 88.4 percent), Washington, D.C. (down $2.4 billion, 86.5 percent), San Francisco (down $2.4 billion, 93 percent), Orlando (down $2.3 billion, 81.5 percent) and Chicago (down $2.2 billion, 86.3 percent). 

California, Florida, New York, Texas and Illinois are the states projected to have the biggest declines in hotel business travel revenues in 2021 from 2019.

The report follows an AHLA survey released in late August that indicated that because of rising Covid-19 cases, 52 percent of business traveler respondents were likely to cancel existing travel plans without rescheduling them, while 60 percent said they planned to postpone existing plans and 67 percent planned to take fewer trips. 

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