The next several years of business travel and an office-bound workforce will be a bit like the Wild West as business managers and employees pioneer a new balance for productivity as the world emerges from the worst of the pandemic, according to travel risk expert Dan Richards, CEO of Global Rescue.

National Travel and Tourism Week (May 1-7) celebrates the value of business travel, especially in a year when the business road warrior community and the travel industry recover from the worst of the pandemic that effectively grounded international business travel.

“The future of business travel will be structured around more digital nomadism and location-independent work. Both of which are not going away,” Richards said.

A third of business travellers now have a remote work schedule and many of them will travel more and longer as a result.

“Virtual substitution for in-person meetings is here to stay. The pandemic has demonstrated productive work can be done from almost anywhere, leading to people taking advantage of that circumstance,” he said.

The prospect of working from anywhere under more flexible attendance policies is going to give many staffers the ability to live and work in places they couldn’t before. The biggest management challenge in this evolving environment will be the ability to supervise a location-independent workforce.

“Managing the remote workforce will be a new challenge as unprecedented numbers of employees log in from the beach, mountains and other places where they’ve chosen to live. Management and employees need to consider how duty of care plays a role,” Richards said.