Zurich Insurance Group chose its home city on 26 February 2026 to unveil the fifth edition of its landmark “Business Travel Outlook”, a survey of 4,000 frequent travellers across eight countries.
![Zurich Insurance’s 2026 Business-Travel Outlook finds corporate globetrotters crave more security and flexibility]()
For travellers who find themselves juggling multiple entry rules or tight turnaround times, VisaHQ can be an invaluable ally. Its Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) enables users to verify visa requirements, submit applications online and track approvals in real time—services that align neatly with the duty-of-care and risk-mitigation priorities spotlighted in Zurich’s study.
The report confirms what many corporate mobility managers have already sensed: after half a decade of pandemic, geopolitical tension and extreme-weather disruption, business travellers have become markedly more risk-averse. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they now scrutinise destination security advisories before booking, while 64 percent want employers to provide real-time alerts on everything from airline strikes to flash floods. The Swiss insurer’s analysts note a sharp uptick in demand for pre-trip medical intelligence and on-trip tele-consultations. Digital tools that once seemed like perks—location-aware assistance apps, automated policy compliance checks and instant re-routing—are fast becoming “hygiene factors”. Zurich says usage of its own Risk Intelligence Platform by multinational clients more than doubled in 2025 and is still climbing in early 2026. Sustainability pressures remain, but they now share centre-stage with personal well-being. Nearly half the surveyed travellers would accept longer journeys by train or electric vehicle to shrink their carbon footprint, yet 57 percent admit they will only do so if travel-time counts as working-time or the itinerary includes a client meeting. Blended trips are gaining favour: the proportion of respondents adding a leisure stay to reduce overall travel frequency rose from 18 percent in 2024 to 29 percent in 2025. For Swiss-based multinationals the message is clear. Duty-of-care programmes must be both broader—covering climate, health, cyber and political risks—and nimbler, delivering personalised advice in the traveller’s language via the channel of their choice. Failure to meet those expectations could undermine talent-retention just as firms are struggling with skills shortages. Zurich Insurance says it will roll out an AI-driven upgrade to its travel-risk platform in Q3 2026, promising predictive disruption modelling that factors in weather anomalies, labour-relations data and infectious-disease trends. Corporate customers with Swiss headquarters will be the first to pilot the new features.
For travellers who find themselves juggling multiple entry rules or tight turnaround times, VisaHQ can be an invaluable ally. Its Switzerland portal (https://www.visahq.com/switzerland/) enables users to verify visa requirements, submit applications online and track approvals in real time—services that align neatly with the duty-of-care and risk-mitigation priorities spotlighted in Zurich’s study.
The report confirms what many corporate mobility managers have already sensed: after half a decade of pandemic, geopolitical tension and extreme-weather disruption, business travellers have become markedly more risk-averse. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they now scrutinise destination security advisories before booking, while 64 percent want employers to provide real-time alerts on everything from airline strikes to flash floods. The Swiss insurer’s analysts note a sharp uptick in demand for pre-trip medical intelligence and on-trip tele-consultations. Digital tools that once seemed like perks—location-aware assistance apps, automated policy compliance checks and instant re-routing—are fast becoming “hygiene factors”. Zurich says usage of its own Risk Intelligence Platform by multinational clients more than doubled in 2025 and is still climbing in early 2026. Sustainability pressures remain, but they now share centre-stage with personal well-being. Nearly half the surveyed travellers would accept longer journeys by train or electric vehicle to shrink their carbon footprint, yet 57 percent admit they will only do so if travel-time counts as working-time or the itinerary includes a client meeting. Blended trips are gaining favour: the proportion of respondents adding a leisure stay to reduce overall travel frequency rose from 18 percent in 2024 to 29 percent in 2025. For Swiss-based multinationals the message is clear. Duty-of-care programmes must be both broader—covering climate, health, cyber and political risks—and nimbler, delivering personalised advice in the traveller’s language via the channel of their choice. Failure to meet those expectations could undermine talent-retention just as firms are struggling with skills shortages. Zurich Insurance says it will roll out an AI-driven upgrade to its travel-risk platform in Q3 2026, promising predictive disruption modelling that factors in weather anomalies, labour-relations data and infectious-disease trends. Corporate customers with Swiss headquarters will be the first to pilot the new features.
