Industry study of 200+ HR, Finance, IT, leadership, and business travel professionals uncover surprising disconnects between finance priorities, traveler expectations, and technology adoption.
BANGALORE, India , July 30, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Conventional wisdom suggests corporate travel technology is primarily about reducing costs and automating bookings. However, a new industry study from TripGain suggests something far more significant is happening.
Based on responses from more than 200 professionals across HR, Finance, IT, executive leadership, and frequent business travelers, ‘The State of Business Travel in India 2026’ report reveals that organizations are no longer struggling to adopt travel technology, they are struggling to connect it.
Among the report’s most striking findings, 58% of organizations with automated travel systems still require more than a week to reimburse employees, highlighting that digitizing individual processes does not necessarily create an efficient travel program. Yet the same research found that organizations with automated booking platforms (64%) were over four times more likely to approve premium travel options, indicating that the real advantage lies not in automation alone, but in connecting policies, approvals, and spend into a unified workflow.
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The report also uncovered an unexpected divide between those managing travel budgets and those taking business trips.
While every HR and Finance Controller surveyed identified broader travel inventory as a strategic priority, only one in five business travelers shared the same view, indicating that inventory is increasingly viewed as a financial control mechanism rather than simply a traveler benefit.
“One of the biggest surprises from this research wasn’t that organizations still have manual processes, it was discovering how differently each stakeholder defines success. Finance prioritizes visibility, HR prioritizes coordination, IT prioritizes governance, and travelers prioritize experience. Each function is addressing its own objective, which is precisely why business travel continues to feel fragmented.” – Sudheer Reddy, Founder, TripGain.
The research suggests this functional disconnect may be the next major challenge for corporate travel.
The findings state that the industry’s challenge is no longer digital adoption, but digital cohesion. While organizations have embraced technology across the travel lifecycle, many continue to manage booking, policy, approvals, payments, and expenses through disconnected systems.
The report further highlights that organizations are beginning to move beyond viewing business travel as an administrative process. Instead, travel is increasingly being treated as a strategic function that intersects employee experience, financial governance, operational resilience, and enterprise visibility.
“The findings challenge one of the industry’s longest-held assumptions – that automation is primarily about efficiency. What we observed is that organizations with stronger digital governance are also more confident in making higher-value travel decisions. That’s a fundamentally different conversation about the role of travel technology.” – Ranga Prasad, Co-founder, TripGain.
The State of Business Travel in India 2026 analyzes travel booking, policy enforcement, approvals, expenses, reimbursements, payment adoption, technology maturity, and stakeholder perspectives to provide organizations with a benchmark for evaluating their own travel programs.
The complete report is available for download here .
TripGain is an AI-powered travel and expense management platform helping enterprises simplify corporate travel, expense management, and spend visibility through intelligent automation. With four offices globally, TripGain serves more than 400 customers and over 400,000 employees across industries. By combining travel, expenses, and AI-driven experiences on a unified platform, TripGain helps organizations improve compliance, control costs, and enhance employee experience. The company expanded its team size and was recently recognized among the Happiest Places to Work, reflecting its continued investment in talent, culture, and long-term growth.
Disha Chatterjee Senior Content Writer [email protected]
Source: PR Newswire
