There will be approximately 1.84 billion business trips around the world in 2026. That's the forecast from the Global Business Travel Association's latest Business Travel Index, which for the first time includes an analysis of worldwide business travel volume.
For us at espresso Displays, it is also worth considering what a "workplace" looks like across 1.84 billion journeys. For millions of people, it won't be an office.
It might be a hotel desk in Singapore. An airport lounge in Sydney. A train between London and Paris. A coworking space in New York. Or a client's meeting room for two days before moving somewhere else where there’s a better connection or coffee!
The modern workplace has become increasingly mobile, transient, but the expectations to perform have been ever greater.
Business travel at enormous scale
GBTA estimates business travellers made around 1.82 billion trips in 2025, with Asia and Europe each accounting for approximately 600 million trips or more.
That figure is expected to grow by 1.3% to around 1.84 billion in 2026. Meanwhile, 74% of business travellers surveyed said they are travelling as much or more than in previous years.
And these aren't necessarily occasional travellers.These are often seasoned business travelers who cover many air miles each year.
Of the 4,700 business travellers surveyed by GBTA in May 2026, 44% reported taking between three and 10 business trips during 2025, while another 15% took more than 10.
For people travelling that regularly, the difference between "travelling" and "working" starts to disappear.
Taking the workspace with you
The laptop made knowledge work portable.The next challenge has been recreating some of the functionality of the desk without recreating the desk itself.
That has driven an entire category of technology designed around mobile work: compact chargers, noise-cancelling headphones, mobile connectivity, folding laptop stands and portable displays.
Enter our own products here at espresso Displays. Portable monitors solve a particularly simple problem.
Most people who use multiple displays at home or in an office immediately lose that workspace when they travel. A portable monitor gives some of it back.
espresso Displays was founded in Sydney in 2019 around the idea that a second screen shouldn't have to be something you leave behind when you leave your desk. Our displays are designed to be thin and light enough to travel with, connecting to compatible laptops through a single USB-C cable.
But the bigger trend is not about any individual device.
It's about the workplace itself becoming portable.
When 1.84 billion business journeys are happening each year, that's a lot of work being done somewhere other than the office.
And increasingly, people are building their workspace around that reality.
Source: 2026 GBTA Business Travel Index, Annual Global Report & Forecast, Global Business Travel Association, August 2026. GBTA research announcement