A recent poll has found that 81 percent of people are in favour of both domestic and international vaccine passports in order to resume business travel as soon as possible.

The poll was live for one week across the LinkedIn channels of Flight Centre Travel Group’s (FCTG) four corporate brands; FCM, Corporate Traveller, Flight Centre Business Travel, and Stage and Screen.

More than 1,750 people responded to the poll, with the large majority in favour of a mandatory vaccine passport system, and less than 10 percent not in support of having any passport initiative.

With pent-up demand for business travel and face-to-face meetings growing by the day, FCTG managing director for Australia James Kavanagh says it’s clear that people overwhelmingly want a form of vaccine passport so business travel can take off again.

“Interestingly, the results showed the support for a domestic-only vaccination passport was almost in line with no support at all, thus highlighting the desire for business travel to return at home and abroad to deal with that pent-up demand as soon as we possibly can,” Kavanagh said.

“There’s no doubt vaccinations lead us down the path to freedom, but before those 70 and 80 per cent thresholds are met, corporate travel is somewhat grounded and people who’ve done the right thing by rolling up their sleeve should have the option to fly freely.”

While virtual meetings will continue to serve a purpose, Kavanagh said nothing beats human interaction at both a corporate and everyday level.

“Travel is critical for companies of all sizes as they look to win and retain new business, and for the retention of their staff. What they crave most is having that certainty to travel if their staff has done the right thing by being vaccinated.

“You just have to look at other nations across the globe to see how business travel volumes come storming back when you are either vaccinated or have a form of vaccination passport.”