business travel outlook 2022

After slow end to 2022, the business travel outlook is turning more positive for 2023

There is a growing sense that lower levels of business flying are here to stay, with many still expecting top executives to set corporate flying reduction targets, driven by cost savings, changing travel habits and sustainability needs.

Messaging regarding the recovery of the business travel segment remains mixed.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of the industry's leading voices have claimed that business travel will never fully recover due to changing working habits - namely, remote working and digital nomadism; company cost reduction; and a growing awareness of environmental issues.

Indeed, international business travel has been recovering at a much slower rate than leisure tourism.

• Recovery in business travel slowed in 2H2022...but rapid recovery is expected for 2023.
• Confidence in business travel nearly fully recovered to the levels from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Suppliers are highly optimistic about the outlook for business travel; higher spend trend echoed by travel buyers and procurement professionals.
• Customer meetings and new business prospects to hold weight of business travel investment.
• A large part of the recovery in US business travel spending has been due to the growth of prices - such as for airfares, car rentals and accommodation.
• COVID-19 has produced a range of changes that have modified the landscape of demand for business travel globally.
• Hybrid and remote working arrangements have persisted for a large proportion of workforces globally.
• Additional layers of corporate travel approvals and duty of care arrangements introduced during the pandemic have proved stubborn to remove.
• Sustainability considerations are also weighing much more heavily on travel activity.

Recovery in business travel slowed in 2H2022...

The global recovery in business travel experienced a pause over much of 2H2022.

After a rapid bounce-back of business travel during 1H2022, the expectation had largely been that the sector would have a continued, if steady, recovery over the second half of the year. However, in the face of rising travel costs due to inflationary pressures, airline operational chaos across multiple regions, and wider concerns about the macroeconomic outlook - businesses revised their plans and travel and budgets were largely static.

This was clearly evident when listening to comments from some of the leading airlines in the US , where business travel recovery had been strong.

In early Dec-2022 United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby stated that business travel had "plateaued" in late 2022, adding that this was "indicative of pre-recessionary behaviour". Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein reported at the start of Jan-2023 that corporate travel demand had been "steady" over 4Q2022, with domestic corporate sales recovering to 80% of 4Q2019 levels.

Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci reported that large Silicon Valley technology companies had largely "turned off" business travel in late 2022.

Airlines Reporting Corporation : US corporate and leisure ticket bookings (percentage vs 2019), 2021-2023

Source: Airlines Reporting Corporation .

...but rapid recovery expected for 2023

Despite the recent slowing performance, there is an increasing undercurrent of positive expectations for business travel for 2023.

Airlines, corporate travel management organisations, travel agencies and business travel associations are now pointing to a rapid recovery for 2023, particularly when it comes to business spending.

Global forward-ticketing data from Forward Keys indicates that after a slowing in business ticket sales over 2H2022, forward sales indicate that corporate air travel is due to accelerate through the early part of 2023.

ForwardKeys: forward business and leisure air ticket data, 2022-2023

Source: ForwardKeys.

The Global Business Travel Association (GNTA) projects global business travel spending of just under USD1.2 trillion in 2023.

While this is still down, around USD273 billion down on 2019 levels (-19.1%), the outlook is for overall spending to increase 24.2% year-on-year for 2023.

GBTA : business travel spending outlook, 2019-2026

Source: Global Business Travel Association .

Confidence in business travel nearly fully recovered to levels before the pandemic

GBTA 's Business Travel Outlook Poll for 1Q2023 found expectations for business travel in 2023, with confidence nearly fully recovered to levels before the COVID pandemic.

Of travel buyers - 91% reported that they feel that employees at their company are now either 'somewhat willing' or 'very willing' to travel for work in the current environment.

This is up from just 64% of reported workers who were willing to travel in Feb-2022, and 86% in Oct-2022.

According to GBTA 's polling, 78% travel managers globally expect their companies will engage in more business travel in 2023.

Expectations about travel volumes increases are almost uniform between the North America , Latin America , Europe and the Asia Pacific regions.

Just 7% of travel managers expect reduced travel.

Reduced travel expectations are lowest with travel managers in North America (6%) and the Asia Pacific (7%), and higher with managers in Europe (10%) and Latin America (13%).

Travel buyer/procurement: professional expectations for 2023 business travel volumes

More travel suppliers expect increased spending on travel by their corporate customers

Further to this, GBTA 's data shows that 86% of travel suppliers expect spending on travel by their corporate customers will increase in 2023 - up from 80% in the association's Oct-2022 survey.

This confidence is high, regardless of region - all travel suppliers surveys in the Asia Pacific expect spending to be somewhat or much higher than it was in 2022, followed by 91% in Latin America , 90% in Europe and 85% in North America .

Just 1% expect reduced spending by corporate customers.

Travel supplier/travel management company: expectations for 2023 business travel spending

Suppliers are also highly optimistic about the outlook for business travel.

According to GBTA polling, 24% report feeling 'very optimistic' about the industry's path to recovery, and 65% are optimistic. Just 3% report they are pessimistic about the outlook.

Travel suppliers expectations about higher spend are echoed by travel buyers and procurement professionals. Of those polled, 46% expect a higher budget for travel programmes for 2023 when compared to 2022, while 41% expect budgets will be about the same as the previous year.

Customer meetings and new business prospects to hold weight of business travel investment

The key area for business travel spending in 2023 is expected to be for trips for sales staff or account managers to meet with customers or new business prospects.

On average, travel managers estimate that their companies will allocate 28% of their travel spend for these purposes in 2023. This is followed by spending on trips for internal company meetings (19%) and spending on attending conferences, trade shows and other industry events (18%).

North American business travel to return to close to normal in 2023

The US Travel Association (USTA) project that the volume of business travel by air will recover to around 98% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with recovery back above 100% in 2024.

Domestic travel is at or above pre-pandemic levels, but international arrivals are still in recovery mode.

For 2022, inbound arrivals by foreign nationals into the US were down 24% compared to 2109. This was chiefly due to the slow rebound of traffic from the Asia Pacific , as well as some sluggishness in the early part of the year in Europe and parts of Latin America .

As of the start of Feb-2023, arrivals from mainland China were down 97% when compared to 2019, and arrivals from Hong Kong were still down by 80%.

Inbound travel from Japan was down 41.6%, and from Australia it was down 30.4%.

From Europe , UK arrivals were down 18.5%, while arrivals from Italy were still 14.2% below pre-pandemic levels and German arrivals were down 7%. Of the main Latin American markets, arrivals from Brazil were still a third below 2019 levels.

USTA estimates for Dec-2022 were that US business travel spending would be USD97 billion, which was an increase of 3% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

US business travel forecast: volume, percentage of 2019 levels, 2019-2026

Source: US Travel Association.

A large part of the recovery in US business travel spending has been due to the growth of prices, such as for airfares, car rentals and accommodation.

According to the USTA, airfares rose 28.5% year-on-year for the full year 2022.

US Bureau of Transport Statistics data shows US domestic fares averaged USD384 in 3Q2022. This is up from an (inflation adjusted) average domestic fare of USD279 in 3Q2020, an increase of 37.4% over the two-year period, and up 12.8% over the past 12 months.

US average domestic round trip airfares, by quarter, 1Q2019- 3Q2022

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Data from the corporate travel solutions provider Emburse shows that average spend per round trip domestic business travel by air for 4Q2022 was USD548, putting it just ahead of 4Q2019 levels.

Spend per round trip on international business travel was significantly higher: USD2113 in 4Q2022, vs USD1804 in 4Q2019 (an increase of 17.1%).

Domestic and international air travel: average spend per round trip, 4Q2019-4Q2022

Source: Emburse.

New hope for full recovery in 2023

COVID-19 has produced a range of changes that have altered the landscape of demand for business travel globally - some of which have slowed the recovery, and others that are contributing to business travel coming back, albeit in modified form or with higher spending.

Hybrid and remote working arrangements have persisted for a large proportion of workforces globally, cutting into historical business travel volumes, while at the same time creating greater demand for 'bleisure' travel.

Although video conferencing technology became ubiquitous during the pandemic, enterprises continue to report strong demand for face-to-face meetings, particularly given the uncertainties in global supply chains and the need to train new staff working from remote locations.

Additional layers of corporate travel approvals and duty of care arrangements introduced during the pandemic have proved stubborn to remove - particularly in large corporations. The response has been to consolidate multiple smaller business trips into larger - and often more costly - single trips.

In this same vein, sustainability considerations are also weighing much more heavily on travel activity, but businesses have also shown greater willingness to spend money to be good corporate citizens and offset the impact of their travel.

Despite the structural trends and concerns about an economic slowdown in developed economies, business travel has renewed its upwards trend.

Although the recovery is happening more slowly than expected, and is still well below where most airlines would like it to be, there is renewed confidence in the recovery outlook for 2023.

Want More Analysis Like This?

• Business Travel
• Personal Travel
• Meetings & Events
• Account Management
• Travel Counselor
• Travel Policy
• Supplier Negotiations
• Gamification
• Performance
• Online Adoption
• Implementation
• Travel Analytics
• Unused Tickets
• Contract Optimization
• Hotel Consulting
• Travel Sourcing
• Travel Alerts
• Locate & Communicate
• Medical & Evacuation
• Online Booking
• 24-Hour Support
• International Tools
• Communications
• Travel Portal
• Global Services
• Find Your Solution
• Case Studies
• Featured Insights
• Concur Login
• GetThere Login
• NuTravel Login
• Invoices On-Demand
• Direct Data
• Visa/Passport

Navigator Blog   >   Shifting into Focus: 2022 Business Travel Forecast

Shifting into Focus: 2022 Business Travel Forecast

Like the temporary blur of a camera lens before it shifts into focus, the picture ahead for business travel in 2022 appears to be sharpening into a clear view despite a hazy start to the New Year.

Even as omicron variant concerns challenge an industry accustomed to COVID-19 setbacks , the year ahead promises rapid growth. Just how quickly and how far business travel will rebound depends on a variety of economic factors, including evolving variants, supply chain limitations, and staffing shortages. While companies and their travelers can’t control those elements, they can plan ahead and mitigate risk in their corporate travel programs. Below we take a look at where the industry is at today and where it’s heading next with our 2022 forecast.

Coronavirus Variants Projected to Lose Steam

The current wave of COVID-19 has spread so swiftly and pervasively that you would be hard pressed to find anyone working in the corporate sphere who has not been directly exposed or impacted. Yet, with case counts hitting a daily record of 1 million in the U.S. alone , there are now signs that the latest surge will peak in January before falling off at the end of the month.

Unlike past surges, which were characterized by a two-month cycle of peaks and subsequent lows , the far-reaching spread of omicron may finally break this pattern. In fact, scientists are already speculating that it may be the last “variant of concern” as omicron staves off less efficient mutations of the virus.

For businesses, this does not mean a COVID-free world, but it does mean a more a manageable, less threatening form of the virus for vaccinated individuals that occurs on a seasonal basis similar to the flu. Companies should consider this when making changes to their employee wellness and travel program policies. While the same rigorous standards of testing and protocol currently in place may not be required in the future, an overall attention to wellness and encouraging sick travelers to stay home will remain critical.

Navigating Supply Chain and Staffing Hurdles

COVID-19 has consumed the attention of businesses for so long that the full extent of the aftermath it will leave behind is only now becoming apparent. The constant change and uncertainty of the past two years have left organizational supply chains broken and staffing structures in disrepair.

Take for instance airlines, which have been forced to cancel tens of thousands of flights globally , due to staffing shortages exacerbated by the spread of omicron. While this scale of disruption threatens to wreak havoc on business travel, it can be tied directly to the rise and decline of COVID. According to the latest report from McKinsey & Company , as the virus recedes, so will the pandemic-induced changes to consumer demand and employment trends. Similarly, once the initial backlog created by supply chain disruptions is cleared, the economy can resume pace and even grow.

With this will come growing pains, similar to what business travelers experienced last summer , such as longer wait times and travel suppliers stretched thin. For businesses mapping out their travel for the year, plan in advance to lock in more favorable rates and conditions now before demand climbs later in the year and hampers buyer negotiating power. Add a safety net by booking with suppliers who offer flexible cancellation policies in case predictions regarding the slowing of COVID take longer than expected.

Business Travel Primed for Growth

Despite the temporary setback posed by omicron, experts are bullish on the outlook for business travel in 2022. Increasing vaccination rates, widely available booster shots, and a general eagerness by travelers to return to the road , all hint at a busy year for travel ahead.

Both the lodging and airline industries are planning accordingly. Delta Air Lines predicts its capacity will be at 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels by the end of 2022 , and CBRE projects U.S. occupancy levels will fall just short of 2019 levels . Recent research from a variety of sources seems to support these predictions. The U.S. Travel Association expects domestic business travel spending will reach 76 percent of 2019 levels this year , with a full recovery by 2024.

Although event cancellations and changes to travel plans are an inevitable part of the recovery process, more businesses are taking a measured “wait and see” approach with each new variant. A survey from GBTA reflects this shift in mindset, with poll respondents indicating their companies were less likely to pause travel plans due to omicron than they were the delta variant . Should a new variant emerge after omicron, it will likely pose less of a disruption to travel, at least not on a widespread scale.

Prepare Your Program

Is your travel program prepared for the next stage of growth and recovery? 2022 presents an opportunity for businesses to shift the focus of their travel programs from a reactive mode to an informed approach that prioritizes taking ownership of the factors they can control.

Direct Travel will be sponsoring a BTN webinar featuring key thought leaders and their insights on this topic, February 10 th at 1 p.m. ET. The webinar will explore how to keep your travelers apprised of the latest changes to travel, ways to prioritize the safety and security of employees on the road, and tips for negotiating with suppliers in the new environment. Subscribe to the Navigator blog to be updated when registration opens for the BTN webinar . 

Subscribe to the Navigator Blog:

Copyright 2023 by Direct Travel | Privacy Statement | Terms Of Use | GDPR Privacy Notice

• Travel, Tourism & Hospitality ›

Business Travel

Global business travel - statistics & facts

Business travel costs, covid-19 impact on business travel, key insights.

Detailed statistics

Global business travel spending 2001-2022

World's best-rated destination countries for non-leisure tourists 2021

Growth rate of global business travel spending 2001-2026

Editor’s Picks Current statistics on this topic

Current statistics on this topic.

Global corporate travel market size 2020-2028

Meetings & Events

Global MICE industry size 2019-2030

Business Travel Spending

Countries with highest business travel spending 2023

Related topics

Recommended.

• Travel agency industry
• Tourism worldwide
• Online travel market
• COVID-19: impact on the tourism industry worldwide
• Coronavirus (COVID-19): impact on health and hygiene in the tourism industry worldwide

Recommended statistics

Business travel market.

• Premium Statistic Global corporate travel market size 2020-2028
• Basic Statistic Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure worldwide 2019-2022, by type
• Premium Statistic Global business travel spending 2001-2022
• Premium Statistic Growth rate of global business travel spending 2001-2026
• Premium Statistic Countries with highest business travel spending 2023
• Premium Statistic World's main travel agencies 2020, by sales share
• Premium Statistic Expectations of business travel providers about revenue at their companies 2022
• Premium Statistic Buyers' expectations about business travel volume at their companies 2022

Market value of the business travel industry worldwide in 2020, with a forecast for 2028 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Distribution of travel and tourism expenditure worldwide 2019-2022, by type

Distribution of travel and tourism spending worldwide in 2019 and 2022, by type

Expenditure of business tourists worldwide from 2001 to 2022 (in billion U.S. dollars)

Percentage change in expenditure of business tourists worldwide from 2001 to 2022, with forecast until 2026

Leading business tourism markets worldwide in 2023, based on total travel spending (in billion U.S. dollars)

World's main travel agencies 2020, by sales share

Leading travel companies worldwide in 2020, by share of global sales

Expectations of business travel providers about revenue at their companies 2022

Expected change in revenue from business tourism for travel management companies worldwide as of January 2022

Buyers' expectations about business travel volume at their companies 2022

Expected change in the volume of business travel services purchased by travel managers at companies worldwide as of January 2022

Association meetings and events

• Premium Statistic Number of international organization meetings worldwide 2015-2021
• Premium Statistic Share of international organization meetings worldwide 2001-2020, by region
• Premium Statistic Outlook on event spaces available in hotels worldwide 2022
• Premium Statistic Hoteliers' predicted business event spend worldwide 2022
• Premium Statistic Preferred corporate events' setup worldwide 2023, by region

Number of international organization meetings worldwide 2015-2021

Number of meetings held by international associations worldwide from 2015 to 2021 (in 1,000s)

Share of international organization meetings worldwide 2001-2020, by region

Distribution of international association meetings held worldwide between 2001 and 2020, by region

Outlook on event spaces available in hotels worldwide 2022

Expectations of hoteliers on the availability of meeting spaces worldwide in 2022

Hoteliers' predicted business event spend worldwide 2022

Expected change on business meeting spend according to hoteliers worldwide in 2022

Preferred corporate events' setup worldwide 2023, by region

Favorite formats of business meetings planned worldwide in 2023, by region

Exhibitions and trade shows

• Premium Statistic COVID-19 impact on exhibitions and trade shows worldwide 2020
• Premium Statistic Operation of the global exhibition industry 2022-2023
• Premium Statistic Main influencing aspects to exhibit at trade shows 2020-2021
• Premium Statistic Challenges of the global exhibition and trade show industry 2022
• Premium Statistic Comparison between digital and live exhibitions by visitors worldwide 2021
• Premium Statistic Largest exhibition halls worldwide 2022, by gross hall capacity

COVID-19 impact on exhibitions and trade shows worldwide 2020

Key figures on the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on the exhibition industry worldwide in 2020

Operation of the global exhibition industry 2022-2023

Operation of exhibitions and trade shows worldwide in 2022 and predictions for 1st half 2023

Main influencing aspects to exhibit at trade shows 2020-2021

Leading factors influencing the decision of exhibitors to participate in events and trade shows worldwide in Q2 2020 and Q2 2021

Challenges of the global exhibition and trade show industry 2022

Most important issues facing the exhibition industry worldwide as of December 2022

Comparison between digital and live exhibitions by visitors worldwide 2021

Opinions on virtual versus in-person exhibitions and trade shows according to visitors worldwide as of 2021

Largest exhibition halls worldwide 2022, by gross hall capacity

Largest exhibition halls worldwide as of February 2022, by gross hall capacity (in 1,000 square meters)

Destinations

• Premium Statistic World's best-rated destination countries for non-leisure tourists 2021
• Premium Statistic Countries planning the largest number of business events and trade fairs 2023
• Premium Statistic Main country destinations for business meetings 2022
• Premium Statistic World's main cities for MICE tourism 2020
• Premium Statistic World's highest-priced business travel destinations Q4 2022
• Premium Statistic Highest hotel expenses in business travel destinations Q4 2022
• Premium Statistic Inbound business travel volume in selected countries worldwide 2019

World's best-rated destination countries for non-leisure tourists 2021

Leading countries for non-leisure travel worldwide in 2021, based on the Travel and Tourism Development Index

Countries planning the largest number of business events and trade fairs 2023

Leading host countries for conferences and trade shows planned worldwide as of August 2023, by number of events

Main country destinations for business meetings 2022

Leading countries for association meetings and events worldwide in 2022, by number of in-person events

World's main cities for MICE tourism 2020

Leading cities for association meetings worldwide in 2020, by number of regional events

World's highest-priced business travel destinations Q4 2022

Most expensive cities for business tourism worldwide in 4th quarter 2022, by average daily costs (in U.S. dollars)

Highest hotel expenses in business travel destinations Q4 2022

Most expensive cities for business tourism worldwide in 4th quarter 2022, by daily hotel cost (in U.S. dollars)

Inbound business travel volume in selected countries worldwide 2019

Number of international business tourist arrivals in selected countries worldwide in 2019 (in millions)

Business travel amid COVID-19

• Premium Statistic COVID-19: main barriers for international business tourism worldwide 2022
• Basic Statistic Impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions on business outcomes 2022
• Premium Statistic Change in business travel bookings for travel suppliers 2021-2022
• Premium Statistic Tourism professionals' outlook for global business travel 2022-2023
• Premium Statistic Employees' disposition towards business travel worldwide 2020-2023
• Premium Statistic Most stressful factors of flying for work purposes 2022, by travel phase
• Premium Statistic Change in interest in bleisure travel by global corporate travel managers 2023

COVID-19: main barriers for international business tourism worldwide 2022

Leading obstacles for international business travel amid coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic according to companies worldwide as of January 2022

Impact of COVID-19 travel restrictions on business outcomes 2022

Perceived effect of government travel restrictions amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on companies worldwide as of February 2022

Change in business travel bookings for travel suppliers 2021-2022

Change in travel bookings from corporate customers reported by travel suppliers worldwide from February 2021 to September 2022

Tourism professionals' outlook for global business travel 2022-2023

Opinion of travel suppliers and travel management companies on the path to recovery from COVID-19 of the business travel industry worldwide from January 2022 to January 2023

Employees' disposition towards business travel worldwide 2020-2023

Willingness of employees to take business trips according to travel managers worldwide from November 2020 to January 2023

Most stressful factors of flying for work purposes 2022, by travel phase

Main stress aspects of a business air trip according to travelers worldwide as of March 2022, by stage of the trip

Change in interest in bleisure travel by global corporate travel managers 2023

Increase in interest of employees in combining business trips with leisure activities according to business travel buyers worldwide as of October 2023

Further reports Get the best reports to understand your industry

Get the best reports to understand your industry.

Mon - Fri, 9am - 6pm (EST)

Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm (SGT)

Mon - Fri, 10:00am - 6:00pm (JST)

Mon - Fri, 9:30am - 5pm (GMT)

At Morgan Stanley, we lead with exceptional ideas. Across all our businesses, we offer keen insight on today's most critical issues.

Personal Finance

Learn from our industry leaders about how to manage your wealth and help meet your personal financial goals.

Market Trends

From volatility and geopolitics to economic trends and investment outlooks, stay informed on the key developments shaping today's markets.

Technology & Disruption

Whether it’s hardware, software or age-old businesses, everything today is ripe for disruption. Stay abreast of the latest trends and developments.

Sustainability

Our insightful research, advisory and investing capabilities give us unique and broad perspective on sustainability topics.

Diversity & Inclusion

Multicultural and women entrepreneurs are the cutting-edge leaders of businesses that power markets. Hear their stories and learn about how they are redefining the terms of success.

Wealth Management

Investment Banking & Capital Markets

Sales & Trading

Investment Management

Morgan Stanley at Work

Sustainable Investing

Inclusive Ventures Group

Morgan Stanley helps people, institutions and governments raise, manage and distribute the capital they need to achieve their goals.

We help people, businesses and institutions build, preserve and manage wealth so they can pursue their financial goals.

We have global expertise in market analysis and in advisory and capital-raising services for corporations, institutions and governments.

Global institutions, leading hedge funds and industry innovators turn to Morgan Stanley for sales, trading and market-making services.

We offer timely, integrated analysis of companies, sectors, markets and economies, helping clients with their most critical decisions.

We deliver active investment strategies across public and private markets and custom solutions to institutional and individual investors.

We provide comprehensive workplace financial solutions for organizations and their employees, combining personalized advice with modern technology.

We offer scalable investment products, foster innovative solutions and provide actionable insights across sustainability issues.

From our startup lab to our cutting-edge research, we broaden access to capital for diverse entrepreneurs and spotlight their success.

Core Values

Giving Back

Sponsorships

Since our founding in 1935, Morgan Stanley has consistently delivered first-class business in a first-class way. Underpinning all that we do are five core values.

Everything we do at Morgan Stanley is guided by our five core values: Do the right thing, put clients first, lead with exceptional ideas, commit to diversity and inclusion, and give back.

Morgan Stanley leadership is dedicated to conducting first-class business in a first-class way. Our board of directors and senior executives hold the belief that capital can and should benefit all of society.

From our origins as a small Wall Street partnership to becoming a global firm of more than 80,000 employees today, Morgan Stanley has been committed to clients and communities for 87 years.

The global presence that Morgan Stanley maintains is key to our clients' success, giving us keen insight across regions and markets, and allowing us to make a difference around the world.

Morgan Stanley is differentiated by the caliber of our diverse team. Our culture of access and inclusion has built our legacy and shapes our future, helping to strengthen our business and bring value to clients.

Our firm's commitment to sustainability informs our operations, governance, risk management, diversity efforts, philanthropy and research.

At Morgan Stanley, giving back is a core value—a central part of our culture globally. We live that commitment through long-lasting partnerships, community-based delivery and engaging our best asset—Morgan Stanley employees.

As a global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley is committed to technological innovation. We rely on our technologists around the world to create leading-edge, secure platforms for all our businesses.

At Morgan Stanley, we believe creating a more equitable society begins with investing in access, knowledge and resources to foster potential for all. We are committed to supporting the next generation of leaders and ensuring that they reflect the diversity of the world they inherit.

Why Morgan Stanley

How We Can Help

Building a Future We Believe In

Get Started

Stay in the Know

For 88 years, we’ve had a passion for what’s possible. We leverage the full resources of our firm to help individuals, families and institutions reach their financial goals.

At Morgan Stanley, we focus the expertise of the entire firm—our advice, data, strategies and insights—on creating solutions for our clients, large and small.

We have the experience and agility to partner with clients from individual investors to global CEOs. See how we can help you work toward your goals—even as they evolve over years or generations.

At Morgan Stanley, we put our beliefs to work. We lead with exceptional ideas, prioritize diversity and inclusion and find meaningful ways to give back—all to contribute to a future that benefits our clients and communities.

Meet one of our Financial Advisors and see how we can help you.

Get the latest insights, analyses and market trends in our newsletter, podcasts and videos.

• Opportunities
• Technology Professionals

Experienced Financial Advisors

We believe our greatest asset is our people. We value our commitment to diverse perspectives and a culture of inclusion across the firm. Discover who we are and the right opportunity for you.

Students & Graduates

A career at Morgan Stanley means belonging to an ideas-driven culture that embraces new perspectives to solve complex problems. See how you can make meaningful contributions as a student or recent graduate at Morgan Stanley.

Experienced Professionals

At Morgan Stanley, you’ll find trusted colleagues, committed mentors and a culture that values diverse perspectives, individual intellect and cross-collaboration. See how you can continue your career journey at Morgan Stanley.

At Morgan Stanley, our premier brand, robust resources and market leadership can offer you a new opportunity to grow your practice and continue to fulfill on your commitment to deliver tailored wealth management advice that helps your clients reach their financial goals.

• Dec 21, 2022

2023 Outlook: Business Travel Bounces Back

Corporate travel budgets are recovering to pre-covid levels, our new survey finds. see where companies are spending in the year ahead..

After grinding to a near halt during the COVID-19 pandemic, business trips—and profits for hotels and airlines catering to higher-paying corporate clients—are bouncing back even beyond pre-pandemic levels, per a recent survey from Morgan Stanley Research.

Despite higher airfares and room rates, the survey of 100 global corporate travel managers found that many respondents believe their company's travel expenditures are already back to pre-pandemic levels and will continue to grow. The biggest demand is coming from small companies, which means lower-cost airlines may benefit the more than their bigger peers.

“Travel budgets are expected to see a noticeable improvement in 2022, with 2023 nearly back to ‘normal,’” says Ravi Shanker, an equity analyst covering North American transportation.  “Most interesting is that nearly half of the respondents expect 2023 budgets to increase versus 2019 overall. And of those that expect an increase in budgets, the majority believe 2023 budgets will be between 6% to 10% higher than 2019.”

Overall travel budgets show an improvement over previous surveys, with 2023 budgets expected to be 98% of 2019 levels on average.

Survey Highlights

•   Smaller companies lead demand for corporate travel. More than two-thirds (68%) of companies with under $1 billion in annual revenue expect travel budgets to increase next year, versus just 41% of companies with annual revenues over $16 billion. Similarly, 32% of smaller companies said travel budgets had returned to pre-pandemic levels compared with 23% of big firms. “This trend could likely favor low-cost carriers, as smaller enterprises tend to be more localized and require less long-haul travel,” says Shanker. “However, the legacy carriers with strong corporate exposure should see gains as well.”  

Nearly a quarter of both large and small companies say their firms are already back to pre-COVID travel levels, and 34% anticipate a full recovery by the end of 2023.

ESG Rate of Change

Holiday budgets hit by inflation, seeing a peak for food prices.

•   Airfares are higher, but that’s not a drag on bookings. On average, corporate airfares are expected to be about 9% higher than pre-pandemic prices. “Clearly the expected increase in corporate airfares is not having a major impact on corporate travel as passenger volume is expected to be basically flat versus 2019,” says Shanker.
• Room rates will continue to rise, though not as fast as they have recently. As of this October, market room rates had spiked 20% to 25% over 2019. Next year they will rise even more, though by an average of just 8%, say respondents (9% in the U.S. and U.K.; 5% to 6% in Latin America, Asia and Africa).
• Hotels face economic and competitive headwinds. While overall travel budgets are growing, companies are cutting costs by trading down when it comes to accommodations. (Historically, budget hotels outperform upscale lodging in tough economic times.) Alternative sources of accommodation also threaten traditional hotels, with 31% of respondents saying they intend to use short-term rental services in the next year.
• Virtual meetings aren’t going away.  Almost 18% of corporate travel will be replaced with virtual meetings, falling slightly to 17% in 2024, suggesting a degree of permanence in the shift with companies recognizing the benefits of virtual meetings ranging from cost savings to lower carbon footprints. Expect companies providing collaboration software to gain from this shift.

For more Morgan Stanley Research insights and analysis on global travel, ask your Morgan Stanley representative or Financial Advisor for the full reports, “Global Corporate Travel Survey: Snapping Back" (Nov. 8, 2022) and “Global Corporate Travel Survey: 2023 Travel Budgets Nearly Back to 2019 Levels, but ~20% of Meetings Could Still Shift to Virtual” (Nov. 8. 2022). Morgan Stanley Research clients can access the reports directly here and here . Plus more Ideas from Morgan Stanley’s thought leaders.

Sign up to get Morgan Stanley Ideas delivered to your inbox.

*Invalid email address

Thank You for Subscribing!

Would you like to help us improve our coverage of topics that might interest you? Tell us about yourself.

Dividends: A Volatility Shield

Dividend-paying stocks with steady distribution growth can offer outsized contributions to long-term portfolio returns.

Global Outlook: Tech & Beyond

Disruption in connected advertising, a digital-driven economic boom in India and more trends in tech, media and telecom.

Building Credit for Immigrants

Wemimo Abbey and Samir Goel present credit solutions for immigrants financially marginalized by America’s credit validation system.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Travel’s Theme for 2022? ‘Go Big’

With Omicron cases ebbing, the industry is looking for a significant rebound in spring and summer. Here’s what to expect, in the air, at the rental car counter and beyond.

By The New York Times

As governments across the world loosen coronavirus restrictions and shift their approach to accepting Covid-19 as a manageable part of everyday life, the travel industry is growing hopeful that this will be the year that travel comes roaring back.

Travel agents and operators have reported a significant increase in bookings in recent weeks for the upcoming spring and summer seasons. The World Travel & Tourism Council (W.T.T.C.), which represents the global travel and tourism industry, projects that travel and tourism in the United States will reach prepandemic levels in 2022, contributing nearly $2 trillion to the U.S. economy. The council also anticipates outbound travel from the United States will increase; it projects bookings over the Easter holiday period to be up by 130 percent over last year.

“Our latest forecast shows the recovery significantly picking up this year as infection rates subside and travelers continue benefiting from the protection offered by the vaccine and boosters,” said Julia Simpson, the president and chief executive officer of the W.T.T.C. “As travel restrictions ease and consumer confidence returns, we expect a welcome release of pent-up travel and demand.”

While uncertainty remains over the course of the pandemic and government policies on mask mandates and testing requirements for travel, the industry is seeing a strong desire among travelers to take big bucket list trips this year, particularly to far-flung international destinations and European cities.

“Travel is no longer just about ‘going somewhere,’” said Christie Hudson, a senior public relations manager for Expedia. “Coming out of such a long period of constraints and limitations, 2022 will be the year we wring every bit of richness and meaning out of our experiences.”

Here are some of the trends you can expect to see.

Air Travel: Fewer restrictions, but for now the masks stay on

Flying in 2022 looks poised to be much like flying in 2021: reminiscent of prepandemic normal at times, infuriating at others. A primary difference is that there will be more people on planes and in airports — 150 percent as many passengers are expected to fly this year as did last year, according to The International Air Transport Association , which represents nearly 300 airlines.

In terms of where you can fly, you’ll have more options than last year. Destinations that have long been closed to most travelers, including Australia, the Philippines and Bali, have started reopening. Airlines have been gradually adding back old routes and expanding with new ones. In the spring, American Airlines, for example, plans to add six new routes from Boston. JetBlue will soon fly direct from New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to Kansas City and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, among other locations.

You’ll still need to check the latest entry requirements before flying internationally. There are currently more than 100,000 health and travel restrictions in place, according to Meghan Benton , a research director at the Migration Policy Institute, which tracks them. Though that’s around the same number as a year ago, she noted, there has been a move away from quarantines and outright bans of nonessential visitors toward vaccination and testing requirements. Recently, a growing number of destinations, including Britain, have also reconsidered the merits of entry testing.

That flight for a summer getaway could cost less than it did before the pandemic. Fares are down 18 percent from 2019, according to Airlines for America, which represents seven major airlines. In January, the cost of international airfares purchased hit an all-time low since Hopper, a booking app, began tracking them in 2014. Predicting whether, when and where they will rise is harder than it was before the pandemic, however, as new variants, evolving health threats, travel restrictions and pandemic psychology have upended traditional pricing patterns. Fortunately, most airlines are continuing to waive flight change fees on all but basic economy flights, said Brett Snyder, the founder of Cranky Flier , an airline industry site.

When flying in the United States, everyone will need to wear a mask until at least late March. That’s when the federal mask mandate is set to expire. It has been extended before and could be extended again. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, is among those who have said that masks on planes should be here to stay. Gary Leff, who writes about air travel for View from the Wing, a site focused on air travel, said he agrees with the betting markets , which predict that the mask mandate will go away by the November midterm elections. Regardless, there will be more alcohol in the air. On Feb. 16, Southwest will serve drinks for the first time in two years. — Heather Murphy

Lodging: Hotels fight back, sometimes with robots

This may be the year travelers return to hotels. In a report for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, Oxford Economics, an economic forecasting company, expects total bookings to nearly equal 2019 stays, though a significant source of revenue — more than roughly $48 billion spent before the pandemic on food and drink, meeting spaces and more — will largely remain missing, given the continued slump in business meetings and group events.

Leisure travelers have kept the industry afloat and in certain areas — especially mountain and coastal destinations — vacation business is booming. With record demand, rates rose at escapist resorts like the Chebeague Island Inn in Maine even in the traditional off-season months.

Now, corporate lodging specialists like Level Hotels & Furnished Suites , which has high-rise apartments in four cities including Seattle, are going after leisure travelers, touting amenities like fitness centers. And why not? During the pandemic, many travelers discovered the privacy offered by rental residences. According to AirDNA , which analyzes the short-term rental market, vacation home bookings were up between 30 and 60 percent in small cities and resort destinations compared to 2019, though big-city rentals are down about 25 percent.

Urban hotels hope to compete for digital nomads by adding stylish extended-stay properties, social attractions and better work spaces. Denver’s Catbird hotel offers ergonomic studios with kitchenettes, plus a rooftop bar and rental gear, including scooters, ukuleles and air fryers. The Hoxton chain’s Working From co-working spaces are attached to its hotels in Chicago and London.

Adapting to lean times, many hotels have outsourced operations beyond laundry and landscaping, into food and recreational services. The new app-based service Breeze works with hotels to provide room service either from on-site restaurants or neighboring ones.

The pandemic has also hastened the adoption of automation in hotels — such as keyless check-in, digital staff communication and room delivery by robots — as a cost-effective response to the labor shortage.

“High tech is the new high touch,” said Chekitan Dev, the Singapore Tourism Distinguished Professor of marketing and management at Cornell University’s hotel school.

Hotel sustainability initiatives look to go further than “towel-washing optional” offers.

Hilton plans to introduce what it says is the country’s first net-zero hotel this year with the solar-powered Hotel Marcel New Haven, Tapestry Collection in New Haven, Conn. SCP Hotels , which operates seven hotels around the country, aims to go zero-waste in 2022.

The industry’s focus on leisure travelers may inspire new diversions. A hotel that can no longer afford to employ 50 servers in its events department might use the space to hold a yoga class or a talk by a local designer, according to Vikram Singh, an independent hotel consultant. “These are the experiences people remember more than whether the pillow was soft,” he said. — Elaine Glusac

Rental Cars: Still pricey, and hard to get

This time last year, Jonathan Weinberg, the founder and chief executive of AutoSlash , an online service that makes and tracks discount car rentals, noticed that rental vehicles were unexpectedly scarce and overpriced for the mid-February Presidents’ Day break, an early indication of the post-vaccine travel rebound.

In 2022, it’s looking worse. A Feb. 1 search in Phoenix for the upcoming holiday weekend showed all the major car rental companies were sold out and just two smaller agencies, Sixt and Nu, had cars, starting at $130 a day, more than twice what they might have been prepandemic.

“Even last year, we didn’t see inventory this tight until a week or so out,” Mr. Weinberg said.

It’s possible that consumers have heeded the advice to book cars early after last year’s shortages. But rental agencies still haven’t been able to expand their fleets — thanks largely to slowdowns in automotive manufacturing — and the anticipated return of travel after Omicron suggests more car trouble ahead.

“It doesn’t look like it’s going to improve at all in the next year,” said Mike Taylor, the senior travel analyst at J.D. Power, a market research company, noting that in addition to higher prices, renters may be getting older cars with high mileage.

According to the travel search engine Kayak , rental car rates last summer peaked in July at a national average of $119 a day. Currently, the national average is about $66, or 27 percent higher than last year at this time, and a 41 percent increase over 2019 for the same period. Searches have more than doubled compared to this time last year.

“Road-tripping is a more predictable way of travel these days, where you can avoid crowds and unexpected delays,” said Matt Clarke, the vice president of North American marketing for Kayak, which recently added search results from companies like Kyte , a car rental company that delivers cars to consumers, and Turo , a car-sharing site.

Such alternatives may have benefited from the rental car crunch. In the first nine months of 2021, revenue at Turo grew more than 200 percent, compared to the same period in 2020, according to a recent filing to go public.

“For many travelers, Turo was the least crazy option from a price standpoint,” said Turo’s chief executive Andre Haddad.

For now, car-sharing sites are better bets for finding electric vehicles, although Hertz announced in the fall that it would have 100,000 E. V.s by the end of this year. At Turo, E.V. listings have grown from about 200 in 2014 to more than 27,000 in 2021.

“We’re already seeing activity for March and April, and that is not normal,” said Ryan Hagler, a Maui resident who uses Turo to rent 10 vehicles, including six Teslas, which start around $80 a day. “I’m assuming it’s going to be pretty busy this year.” — Elaine Glusac

Destinations: Cities are back

This March, Virginia Devlin of Chicago is headed to New York City with her daughter, a musical theater student, to celebrate two years’ worth of missed birthday trips. They’ll see Broadway shows and visit Chinatown for dim sum. Tracy Lippes, of Short Hills, N.J., is ready to go to Paris. “I can’t wait to stay in a beautiful hotel, shop, visit museums and eat at great restaurants,” Ms. Lippes said of her March trip. Greg Siskind, an immigration attorney in Memphis, is thrilled to have an in-person conference in London next month, and plans to arrive a few days early to enjoy the city with his adult daughters.

Yes, city travel is back. After more than two years of avoiding urban centers, travelers are eager to return to their favorite metropolis and swan dive into the sights, bites and sounds of a city that is not their own.

“It was a lift to everyone when the U.K. dumped Covid mandates on Jan. 26,” said Henley Vazquez, a co-founder of FORA, a travel agency in New York City . “Bookings are spiking for classic European destinations, particularly Paris and London. Clients want to reconnect with special hotels and restaurants and simply bask in the culture.”

In the United States, Shawna Owen, the president of Huffman Travel , a Chicago-based agency that specializes in luxury and family travel, is planning long weekend trips to New York City. “New York is buzzing again and clients are excited to dine at hot spots and enjoy the city’s dynamism.”

Underscoring the New York-is-back trend, the travel booking site Skyscanner reports that New York City is its top booked domestic destination so far in 2022 and the online travel agency Expedia has had a 13 percent increase in searches for New York City.

As for Europe, Paris and London are the top searched international destinations on Scott’s Cheap Flights , a service that tracks flight deals. Hotel searches on Expedia jumped 62 percent for London and 51 percent for Paris since Jan. 1, and the mobile app Hopper reports that London and Paris clock in as two of the most searched international destinations for spring 2022.

With restrictions easing, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts reported an 80 percent increase in its bookings in Paris, London and New York from December to Jan. 16.

In London, the luxury travel outfit, Noteworthy , has seen bookings of its private tours to iconic British sites increase 145 percent in February over the same time in 2021. “ The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has definitely been a tourist draw,” said Nicola Butler, the company’s owner and managing director. — Amy Tara Koch

Resorts: All-inclusives, beyond the beach

A new breed of domestic resort is pioneering an almost all-inclusive model, taking the guesswork out of where to eat and what to do. Why “almost?” These properties don’t include alcoholic beverages in their nightly rate, and, perhaps fittingly, boast enviable wine and spirits collections. A major catalyst for the trend: pandemic-scarred travelers wary of leaving the grounds of a resort once they arrive, according to Erina Pindar, the managing director of SmartFlyer , a luxury travel agency. “The almost all-inclusive is incredibly popular,” she said, “we expect demand to continue to be strong.”

Hotels.com reports that searches for this type of resort have increased significantly compared with the same time frame in 2019. “After the stress of the last few years,” said Mel Dohmen, a Hotels.com spokeswoman, “travelers are looking for stays where they can be doted on.”

“Our clients see these resorts as a hassle-free option,” said Jennifer Doncsecz, president of the travel agency V.I.P. Vacations .

The San Ysidro Ranch in Montecito, Calif., long beloved by luminaries like Winston Churchill and Vivien Leigh, pivoted to an almost-all inclusive model in 2020. In addition to folding the cost of meals into the nightly rate, which starts at $2,495, it did away with extraneous charges like resort fees and parking. “We figured, with all the charges we’ve gotten rid of, what are people going to spend money on? Wine,” said Ian Williams, the Ranch’s general manager. “We’ve had no complaints. This past year has been our busiest ever.”

Given the complications caused by the pandemic, Mr. Williams and his team sought to streamline the travel process. “We want guests to check out and spend their trip home talking about what an amazing vacation they had,” he said, “not some miscellaneous charge on their bill.”

Beachside buffets and watered down margaritas might rule at the traditional all-inclusive; not at the Ranch. “Every guest, if they want the Wagyu for dinner, fine,” said Mr. Williams. “Caviar? Great. Maine lobster? No problem.”

When High Hampton , a Cashiers, N.C., resort that dates back to 1933, remodeled in 2020, it folded breakfast and dinner into its nightly rate, which starts at $595, “because it removes that pressure of where to dine next,” said Scott Greene, the resort’s general manager. (The amber-lit, oak-paneled dining room is always the right answer.)

The same logic has long been in place at Blackberry Farm and Blackberry Mountain , two resorts in Walland, Tenn. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are included in the nightly rate — $845 and up at the Farm, $1,395 and up at the Mountain —- along with all the snacks in the minibar. “We’re exceeding prepandemic occupancy,” said Matt Alexander, Blackberry’s president. SmartFlyer saw a 327-percent increase in revenue from bookings at the two properties in 2021 as compared to 2019. — Sheila Yasmin Marikar

Wellness: Sexual healing

Sexual wellness is one of the fastest growing corners of the global wellness industry, with travel increasingly part of the experience. More hotel brands and relationship therapists are offering couples retreats and beachfront sessions with intimacy coaches and guided anatomical explorations to meet the needs of travelers seeking greater couple satisfaction and personal pleasure.

“People still have stigma around couples therapy and coming to therapy, but nobody ever had a problem going on vacation,” said Marissa Nelson, a sex therapist who runs retreats in Barbados, Hawaii, St. Lucia and Washington, D.C., through her company IntimacyMoons (seven days in St. Lucia starts at $7,500). She also offers virtual sessions; even when retreats were shut down in 2020, she noticed couples were traveling — to Airbnbs or on road trips — before logging on to work with her.

Travel is a powerful tool for unlocking intimacy, said Shlomo Slatkin, a rabbi and certified relationship therapist. His company, The Marriage Restoration Project , focuses on married couples. In the past year, in response to a growing demand to combine therapy and travel, he has introduced his first destination retreats — which cost between $4,000 and $5,000 and take place in Costa Rica, Mexico and Miami.

“Going away is really powerful, because changing the relationship requires a paradigm shift,” he said. “The lockdowns brought out a lot of maintenance issues in relationships that need to be addressed.”

Tara Skubella, a tantric guide, works with both couples and single women. Tantra, a spiritual philosophy with roots in medieval India, includes practices like tantric sex, and Ms. Skubella offers services, including chakra work, which focuses on energy points in the body. Her retreats in Costa Rica and Colorado (starting at $499) have been mostly sold out since 2020, she said.

“It seems very aligned to Covid and breaking out of isolation,” she said. “Society is realizing tantra isn’t only about sex, but about inner connection and healing.”

In March, the hotelier St. Regis will launch a retreat with the sex coach Bibi Brzozka on intimacy, conscious sexuality and emotional awareness at the St. Regis Punta Mita Resort in Mexico ($2,680). In April, Six Senses Ibiza will host Pleasure Principles — Journey of Women’s Sexual Wellness , a six-night stay focusing on female sexual empowerment ($4,500). They are the first sexuality-focused retreats for both brands. — Debra Kamin

Family Travel: Going on the edu-vacation

After two years of quarantines and classroom closures, millions of children across the country have fallen behind in class . And parents, eager for lesson plans that can supplement learning, are now seeking experiences with an educational bent when they travel.

“Previously, families didn’t ask in advance about what educational activities are available at the resorts. Now they do,” said Chitra Stern, founder and chief executive of the family-friendly Martinhal resorts in Portugal. Nearly half of her new bookings, Ms. Stern said, now include questions about on-site educational opportunities for children. Last year, the luxury resorts began partnering with the United Lisbon International School to offer a two-week educational summer camp for its younger guests at Martinhal Lisbon. Courses, which are available for children ages 3 to 17, begin at 440 euros (around $500).

After a pandemic dip, enrollments are on the rise for family-learning itineraries with the tour operator Road Scholar , which produces educational travel programs for all ages. Options for children and their caregivers, which start at $699 per adult and $449 per child, include combining history and geography with spotting grizzlies in the Canadian Rockies , or learning French while taking a scavenger hunt through Paris’s Louvre .

And noting an uptick in children road tripping with their parents, the Colorado Tourism Office last summer launched Schoolcations , a series of free itineraries based on Colorado road trips and designed for grades K-5.

There are also more opportunities to learn back at the hotel. Family Coppola Hideaways — a group of retreats owned by the film director Francis Ford Coppola — now offers the Coppola Curriculum at its properties in Belize and Guatemala. Half-day lessons cost $150 per day for children and include courses in science (like counting bird species) and art (like local textile looming). In Florida, Isla Bella Beach Resort and Oceans Edge Resort & Marina now partner with Marine Science Camp for classes with marine scientists, geared to elementary school children (free for hotel guests). In California, attendance at the Artisans in Residence program at Carmel Valley Ranch — taught in the apiary, organic garden and goat creamery, and starting at $85 for adults and $65 for children — has doubled.

For some, a desire for extra credit also means going for an extra splurge. At the luxury travel agency Black Tomato , bucket-list family travel now accounts for 55 percent of bookings, with the majority of requests falling into what the company defines as BFG travel: Big Family Get-Togethers. So the company has rolled out a family-focused education track, Field Trip , which begins at around $5,800 per person; courses include a physics lesson at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland and a social studies-focused hike through Bhutan’s Gangtey Valley to meet a revered monk.

“Thematically, for 2022 family bookings, it’s all about intrepid adventure mixed with cultural immersion, ecological outdoor experiences, intrepid luxury hotels and even pop-up glamping setups — definitely bucket-list and remote,” said Tom Marchant, Black Tomato’s owner and co-founder. — Debra Kamin

Cruises: Smaller boats and luxury destinations

After two years of devastating losses and a tentative restart last June, the cruise industry has faced a challenging start to 2022, as the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the coronavirus caused cases to surge onboard ships, forcing some cruise lines to cancel voyages and change itineraries.

But demand for future cruises is still high, especially among dedicated cruise fans. A recent survey on cruiser sentiment by the online review site Cruise Critic found that 52 percent of the 6,400 cruisers surveyed were currently looking to book a cruise, with 40 percent hoping to set sail in the next six months.

A 2022 report on the outlook for the industry, published in January by the Cruise Lines International Association, the industry’s trade group, highlighted how major companies are bouncing back from the pandemic despite recent hurdles.

More than 75 percent of CLIA member ships have returned to service, with 100 percent expected to restart operations by August 2022. Additionally, 16 new cruise ships from major lines like Carnival, MSC, Royal Caribbean and Disney will launch in 2022.

One of the biggest cruise trends for 2022 is luxury expedition voyages, appealing to a growing number of travelers throughout the pandemic because they typically sail on smaller ships and steer away from crowded destinations.

“The itineraries vary pretty significantly from those of the larger, more mainstream lines,” said Colleen McDaniel, the editor in chief of Cruise Critic. “Due to their size, luxury ships are able to sail to more remote destinations — so even if you’re sailing in the Caribbean, your ports of call will likely be further removed from the masses, and likely somewhere you might have never been before.”

Smaller river and expedition cruises are also expected to become more popular this year as cruisers seek out big bucket-list destinations and more sustainable ways to travel. Responding to the demand, Hurtigruten, a Norwegian line that specializes in expedition cruises, has added new itineraries to its Galápagos Islands excursions, offering a range of small-ship carbon-neutral expedition sailings that will cover the full span of the remote 19-island archipelago.

“A very positive trend we’ve seen throughout the pandemic is that travelers are increasingly eco-conscious; meaning they do their homework on brands, including cruise ships, to make sure they align with their personal values.” said Daniel Skjeldam, the chief executive of Hurtigruten Group.

The company is also expanding its grand expedition cruise program, offering three unique cruises from the North to South Pole after the success of two similar sold-out sailings scheduled for the fall. The itineraries include destinations like Alaska, Iceland, Greenland, the Northwest Passage sea route, South America and Antarctica.

“After having been isolated for two years, people really want to do something they really can look forward to,” Mr. Skjeldam said. “Something perhaps more active and interesting than their normal prepandemic holiday.” — Ceylan Yeginsu

52 Places for a Changed World

The 2022 list highlights places around the globe where travelers can be part of the solution.

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places for a Changed World for 2022.

An earlier version of this article mischaracterized Kyte, a car rental business. Kyte is a car rental company that delivers cars to consumers; it is not a car-sharing website.

How we handle corrections

Come Sail Away

Love them or hate them, cruises can provide a unique perspective on travel..

 Cruise Ship Surprises: Here are five unexpected features on ships , some of which you hopefully won’t discover on your own.

 Icon of the Seas: Our reporter joined thousands of passengers on the inaugural sailing of Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas . The most surprising thing she found? Some actual peace and quiet .

Th ree-Year Cruise, Unraveled:  The Life at Sea cruise was supposed to be the ultimate bucket-list experience : 382 port calls over 1,095 days. Here’s why  those who signed up are seeking fraud charges  instead.

TikTok’s Favorite New ‘Reality Show’:  People on social media have turned the unwitting passengers of a nine-month world cruise  into  “cast members”  overnight.

Dipping Their Toes: Younger generations of travelers are venturing onto ships for the first time . Many are saving money.

Cult Cruisers: These devoted cruise fanatics, most of them retirees, have one main goal: to almost never touch dry land .

Business travel picks up, bolstering outlook for US airlines

• Medium Text

Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. Sign up here.

Reporting by Rajesh Kumar Singh; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles. New Tab , opens new tab

Ukraine attacked eight Russian regions with dozens of long-range strike drones, setting ablaze a fuel depot and hitting three power substations in a major attack early on Saturday, an intelligence source in Kyiv told Reuters.

Business Chevron

Tesla cuts prices in China, Germany, and around globe after US cuts

Tesla has cut prices in a number of its major markets - including in China and Germany - after price cuts in the United States - as it grapples with falling sales and an intensifying price war for electric vehicles (EVs), especially against cheaper Chinese EVs.

After slow end to 2022, the business travel outlook is turning more positive for 2023

There is a growing sense that lower levels of business flying are here to stay, with many still expecting top executives to set corporate flying reduction targets, driven by cost savings, changing travel habits and sustainability needs.

Messaging regarding the recovery of the business travel segment remains mixed.

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of the industry's leading voices have claimed that business travel will never fully recover due to changing working habits - namely, remote working and digital nomadism; company cost reduction; and a growing awareness of environmental issues.

Indeed, international business travel has been recovering at a much slower rate than leisure tourism.

Recovery in business travel slowed in 2H2022...

The global recovery in business travel experienced a pause over much of 2H2022.

After a rapid bounce-back of business travel during 1H2022, the expectation had largely been that the sector would have a continued, if steady, recovery over the second half of the year. However, in the face of rising travel costs due to inflationary pressures, airline operational chaos across multiple regions, and wider concerns about the macroeconomic outlook - businesses revised their plans and travel and budgets were largely static.

This was clearly evident when listening to comments from some of the leading airlines in the US, where business travel recovery had been strong.

In early Dec-2022 United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby stated that business travel had "plateaued" in late 2022, adding that this was "indicative of pre-recessionary behaviour". Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein reported at the start of Jan-2023 that corporate travel demand had been "steady" over 4Q2022, with domestic corporate sales recovering to 80% of 4Q2019 levels.

Alaska Airlines CEO Ben Minicucci reported that large Silicon Valley technology companies had largely "turned off" business travel in late 2022.

Airlines Reporting Corporation: US corporate and leisure ticket bookings (percentage vs 2019), 2021-2023

Source: Airlines Reporting Corporation.

...but rapid recovery expected for 2023

Despite the recent slowing performance, there is an increasing undercurrent of positive expectations for business travel for 2023.

Airlines, corporate travel management organisations, travel agencies and business travel associations are now pointing to a rapid recovery for 2023, particularly when it comes to business spending.

Global forward-ticketing data from Forward Keys indicates that after a slowing in business ticket sales over 2H2022, forward sales indicate that corporate air travel is due to accelerate through the early part of 2023.

ForwardKeys: forward business and leisure air ticket data, 2022-2023

Source: ForwardKeys.

The Global Business Travel Association (GNTA) projects global business travel spending of just under USD1.2 trillion in 2023.

While this is still down, around USD273 billion down on 2019 levels (-19.1%), the outlook is for overall spending to increase 24.2% year-on-year for 2023.

GBTA: business travel spending outlook, 2019-2026

Source: Global Business Travel Association.

Confidence in business travel nearly fully recovered to levels before the pandemic

GBTA's Business Travel Outlook Poll for 1Q2023 found expectations for business travel in 2023, with confidence nearly fully recovered to levels before the COVID pandemic.

Of travel buyers - 91% reported that they feel that employees at their company are now either 'somewhat willing' or 'very willing' to travel for work in the current environment.

This is up from just 64% of reported workers who were willing to travel in Feb-2022, and 86% in Oct-2022.

According to GBTA's polling, 78% travel managers globally expect their companies will engage in more business travel in 2023.

Expectations about travel volumes increases are almost uniform between the North America, Latin America, Europe and the Asia Pacific regions.

Just 7% of travel managers expect reduced travel.

Reduced travel expectations are lowest with travel managers in North America (6%) and the Asia Pacific (7%), and higher with managers in Europe (10%) and Latin America (13%).

Travel buyer/procurement: professional expectations for 2023 business travel volumes

More travel suppliers expect increased spending on travel by their corporate customers

Further to this, GBTA's data shows that 86% of travel suppliers expect spending on travel by their corporate customers will increase in 2023 - up from 80% in the association's Oct-2022 survey.

This confidence is high, regardless of region - all travel suppliers surveys in the Asia Pacific expect spending to be somewhat or much higher than it was in 2022, followed by 91% in Latin America, 90% in Europe and 85% in North America.

Just 1% expect reduced spending by corporate customers.

Travel supplier/travel management company: expectations for 2023 business travel spending

Suppliers are also highly optimistic about the outlook for business travel.

According to GBTA polling, 24% report feeling 'very optimistic' about the industry's path to recovery, and 65% are optimistic. Just 3% report they are pessimistic about the outlook.

Travel suppliers expectations about higher spend are echoed by travel buyers and procurement professionals. Of those polled, 46% expect a higher budget for travel programmes for 2023 when compared to 2022, while 41% expect budgets will be about the same as the previous year.

Customer meetings and new business prospects to hold weight of business travel investment

The key area for business travel spending in 2023 is expected to be for trips for sales staff or account managers to meet with customers or new business prospects.

On average, travel managers estimate that their companies will allocate 28% of their travel spend for these purposes in 2023. This is followed by spending on trips for internal company meetings (19%) and spending on attending conferences, trade shows and other industry events (18%).

North American business travel to return to close to normal in 2023

The US Travel Association (USTA) project that the volume of business travel by air will recover to around 98% of pre-pandemic levels in 2023, with recovery back above 100% in 2024.

Domestic travel is at or above pre-pandemic levels, but international arrivals are still in recovery mode.

For 2022, inbound arrivals by foreign nationals into the US were down 24% compared to 2109. This was chiefly due to the slow rebound of traffic from the Asia Pacific, as well as some sluggishness in the early part of the year in Europe and parts of Latin America.

As of the start of Feb-2023, arrivals from mainland China were down 97% when compared to 2019, and arrivals from Hong Kong were still down by 80%.

Inbound travel from Japan was down 41.6%, and from Australia it was down 30.4%.

From Europe, UK arrivals were down 18.5%, while arrivals from Italy were still 14.2% below pre-pandemic levels and German arrivals were down 7%. Of the main Latin American markets, arrivals from Brazil were still a third below 2019 levels.

USTA estimates for Dec-2022 were that US business travel spending would be USD97 billion, which was an increase of 3% compared to pre-pandemic levels.

US business travel forecast: volume, percentage of 2019 levels, 2019-2026

Source: US Travel Association.

A large part of the recovery in US business travel spending has been due to the growth of prices, such as for airfares, car rentals and accommodation.

According to the USTA, airfares rose 28.5% year-on-year for the full year 2022.

US Bureau of Transport Statistics data shows US domestic fares averaged USD384 in 3Q2022. This is up from an (inflation adjusted) average domestic fare of USD279 in 3Q2020, an increase of 37.4% over the two-year period, and up 12.8% over the past 12 months.

US average domestic round trip airfares, by quarter, 1Q2019- 3Q2022

Source: US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Data from the corporate travel solutions provider Emburse shows that average spend per round trip domestic business travel by air for 4Q2022 was USD548, putting it just ahead of 4Q2019 levels.

Spend per round trip on international business travel was significantly higher: USD2113 in 4Q2022, vs USD1804 in 4Q2019 (an increase of 17.1%).

Domestic and international air travel: average spend per round trip, 4Q2019-4Q2022

Source: Emburse.

New hope for full recovery in 2023

COVID-19 has produced a range of changes that have altered the landscape of demand for business travel globally - some of which have slowed the recovery, and others that are contributing to business travel coming back, albeit in modified form or with higher spending.

Hybrid and remote working arrangements have persisted for a large proportion of workforces globally, cutting into historical business travel volumes, while at the same time creating greater demand for 'bleisure' travel.

Although video conferencing technology became ubiquitous during the pandemic, enterprises continue to report strong demand for face-to-face meetings, particularly given the uncertainties in global supply chains and the need to train new staff working from remote locations.

Additional layers of corporate travel approvals and duty of care arrangements introduced during the pandemic have proved stubborn to remove - particularly in large corporations. The response has been to consolidate multiple smaller business trips into larger - and often more costly - single trips.

In this same vein, sustainability considerations are also weighing much more heavily on travel activity, but businesses have also shown greater willingness to spend money to be good corporate citizens and offset the impact of their travel.

Despite the structural trends and concerns about an economic slowdown in developed economies, business travel has renewed its upwards trend.

Although the recovery is happening more slowly than expected, and is still well below where most airlines would like it to be, there is renewed confidence in the recovery outlook for 2023.

• north america
• latin america
• south pacific
• business travel
• corporate travel
• work culture
• sustainability
• forwardkeys
• duty of care
• travel buyers
• the americas
• travel managers
• work from anywhere
• work from home

I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.

• I booked a stateroom on Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas, one of the biggest cruise ships.
• For $2,000 a week, the 179-square-foot cabin had a private bathroom, a king-size bed, and a view.
• I thought I'd feel cramped in the room, but it had everything I needed and left no space unused.

In April 2022, I cruised on board Royal Caribbean's Wonder of the Seas . At the time, it was the largest cruise ship in the world , but the title has since been replaced by Royal Caribbean's Icon of the Seas .

During my voyage, the ship sailed to Roatán, Honduras; Cozumel and Costa Maya in Mexico; and Royal Caribbean's private island in the Bahamas .

For $2,000, I spent seven nights in an ocean-view stateroom on deck eight. The cruise was on sale, as it was originally priced at $3,000. Take a look inside the 179-square-foot space.

My room was a mid-tier cabin at the front of deck eight.

I booked a mid-tier room — a step above interior staterooms , which have no window. It's a category below staterooms with a balcony , and two steps below a suite.

My cabin was on the same deck as Central Park, an outdoor space with 20,000 plants.

I thought it was the most relaxing area on the ship, so I enjoyed being close by.

When I stepped inside my stateroom, I was surprised at how big it felt.

Right away, I thought the cabin made great use of a small space.

To operate most of the electricity in the room, I had to insert my room key into a slot on the wall.

I appreciated the energy-saving system.

On one side of the room, I had a mirror and a desk with several outlets to charge electronics with USB, American, and European ports.

I thought the desk was useful for eating, as well as storing daily flyers about the day's events.

Next to the desk, a set of drawers included a cabinet with a minifridge inside.

The desk drawers were mostly empty aside from a hair dryer, which I didn't end up using.

Across from the desk, I had a couch positioned in between two closets.

Inside each closet, I found a rack of hangers, shelving, and a small safe. I thought it was plenty of space for a weeklong journey

Next to the couch and desk area, a small bathroom used clever storage hacks, like placing the trash can and toilet paper under the counter.

In the bathroom, there were two glasses, a bar of soap, and a two-in-one hair and body wash.

At the top of the shower, a pullout clothing line was useful for drying my bathing suits.

Each night, my stateroom attendant replenished towels and brought flyers and schedules for the next day.

Sometimes, the towels were folded creatively to look like animals.

I noticed that my king-size bed at the back of the room was actually two twin beds pushed together.

All Royal Caribbean cabins come with this configuration, according to its website , so they may be separated for additional guests. I often woke up in the crevice.

A large flat-screen TV was mounted across from the bed with storage hooks below.

Skinny nightstands on either side of the bed held lamps, charging ports, and a room phone on one side.

Because I booked an ocean-view room, I was able to look out over the front of the ship from a window above my bed.

The window was equipped with an electronic shade that could be opened during the day for grand views and closed when I was ready to sleep.

While I thought the room might have been a tight space for a couple with a lot of luggage or a family, it was just right for me.

And watching the sun rise over the Caribbean Sea from the comfort of my room was the best part.

• Main content

We've detected unusual activity from your computer network

To continue, please click the box below to let us know you're not a robot.

Why did this happen?

Please make sure your browser supports JavaScript and cookies and that you are not blocking them from loading. For more information you can review our Terms of Service and Cookie Policy .

For inquiries related to this message please contact our support team and provide the reference ID below.

Markets could tank if the Fed doesn't cut rates soon, and failure to do so could lead to a hard landing in 2025, chief economist says

• A no rate cut scenario risks fueling a hard landing in 2025, Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok told Bloomberg TV.
• He expects stocks to slowly lose momentum, which could fuel massive losses in a higher rate environment.
• Slok has cited runaway inflation and the hot economy as reasons why the Fed won't cut.

Equity strength can't last if the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates unchanged, Torsten Slok told Bloomberg TV on Tuesday .

If rates aren't slashed this year, the stock market's ongoing "sugar high" will melt away, as the negative consequences of hawkish policy continue to bear out.

"It is already biting hard on highly levered consumer balance sheets, highly levered corporate balance sheets and also hard on banks and regional banks," the Apollo chief economist said:

"As that sugar high starts to fade, if the stock market doesn't continue to go up, you will eventually get that effect to begin to dominate. And that's probably what we get in 2025, when you ultimately will then get the risk of a hotter landing." 

In this environment, Slok cautioned that the market would be reminiscent of 2022, as stocks fell against rising rates. 

The stock market ended that year in a deep bear market, and the benchmark S&P index shed 18%. 

Despite his warnings of the risks posed by high rates, Slok doesn't see strong chances of a Fed rate cut and has been among the first to suggest that monetary policy will remain unchanged this year. Underlying reasons include the US economy's surprising strength, and rising inflation figures across a slew of sectors, a point he doubled down on in the interview.

His comments come as investors have turned doubtful about the potential for a rate cut in June, once held up as the most likely month for interest rate easing. While markets are now pricing in these odds for September, some have gone as far as to suggest possible rate hikes , if the Fed wants to clamp down on inflation. Slok doesn't agree with that outlook, however. 

"I think they rather, from a transmission mechanism perspective, keep rates high for a little bit longer, maybe one or two quarters, and then achieve their goal of getting the economy to slow down."

• Main content

Home Toggle navigation FR Toggle Search Search the site Search About us About us Head office Regional offices History Archives Background materials Photos and videos Accessibility Contact us Corporate governance Board of Directors Governing Council and Senior Management Governance documents Educational resources The Economy, Plain and Simple Explainers Financial education resources Careers Take a central role at the Bank of Canada with our current opportunities and scholarships.

Liquidity risks at Canadian life insurance companies

Introduction.

Life insurers, like many asset managers, use fixed-income markets to implement their investment strategies. A key quality of fixed-income markets is liquidity. In a liquid market, participants can trade quickly at prevailing prices. This allows asset managers to use securities as collateral or sell them to manage their risk of not meeting short-term cash or collateral obligations, known as liquidity risk. 1

However, during periods when many market participants seek liquidity at the same time, the demand for liquidity may overwhelm the capacity or willingness of intermediaries, like bank-owned dealers, to provide it. This risk has come into focus for practitioners and policy-makers since the COVID-19 crisis, the episode of extreme market stress at the onset of the COVID‑19 pandemic in March 2020. 2 At that time, central banks around the world intervened to restore market liquidity, including by opening new emergency lending facilities for a wide range of market participants. 3

Understanding the potential behaviour of market participants during such episodes can help central bankers develop policy. The Bank of Canada has therefore been deepening its understanding of how various types of market participants manage their liquidity risks and the potential impact of their actions on fixed-income markets. This work has included analyzing mutual funds, hedge funds and pension funds. 4

We conducted two rounds of interviews with representatives from four of the largest Canadian life insurers and analyzed several data sources to investigate how life insurers’ business model results in liquidity risks and how they manage this risk. 5 Specifically, we use three data sources:

• the National Balance Sheet Accounts (NBSA) from Statistics Canada, which include aggregated balance sheet information for all Canadian life insurers
• life insurers’ investment returns from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI), which include granular information on assets and derivative positions for the three largest OSFI-regulated insurance companies—Manulife, Sun Life and Canada Life
• the Market Trade Reporting System from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization, which contains detailed, dealer-reported information about Canadian bond trades, including those involving life insurers

For clarity, we indicate on each chart that the samples of life insurance companies differ across these data sources.

In brief, we find that the two most important liquidity risks that Canadian life insurers must manage are unexpected payouts resulting from policyholder behaviour and margin calls from derivatives. We examine the effects on insurers from the COVID‑19 crisis and the period of rising interest rates in 2022, which serve as case studies in liquidity risk management. We find that the two liquidity risks did not materialize significantly in either period, which allowed life insurers to continue their typical investment pattern of purchasing long-dated corporate and provincial bonds. These purchases provide an important source of funding for Canadian bond issuers, which supports market liquidity and the real economy.

Life insurers are among the largest institutional investors in Canada

Life insurers are companies that, as the name implies, specialize in providing life insurance and related products. The sector has a small number of large companies that individually manage assets of comparable value to those of some of Canada's big pension funds. This makes life insurers among the largest institutional investors in Canada, managing around $1 trillion of financial assets associated with their Canadian business lines as of the first quarter of 2023 ( Chart 1 ). A large proportion of these assets are fixed-income securities, mainly bonds ( Chart 2 ). 6 Therefore, life insurers can alleviate or exacerbate strains on liquidity in fixed-income markets through their transactions.

Chart 1: Life insurance companies are among the largest institutional investors in Canada

A modern browser with javascript enabled is required to view our charts.

Alternatively, the data is available for download in:

Life insurers sell financial products that are typically of two types:

• life insurance
• investments such as annuities and mutual funds

These products offer future payoffs to holders, which creates liabilities for life insurers. To meet these future obligations, insurers invest the cash they receive from their clients.

Overall, Canadian life insurers manage roughly equal proportions of assets associated with each type of product. Investment products are often managed in distinct funds, and their liquidity risks come primarily from investor redemptions. Mutual funds manage this risk in a similar way, a topic that the Bank has analyzed in the past. 7 We therefore focus our analysis on life insurance products because they present liquidity risks that are unique to life insurers.

Canadian life insurers use bonds and derivatives to match assets and liabilities

Understanding the risks inherent in life insurers’ business models is helpful for understanding their liquidity risks and how they manage them. 8 A key risk from the business model comes from the long time horizons over which life insurance contracts pay out. Insurers estimate these horizons, which can be several decades, by using actuarial modelling of policyholders’ longevity and morbidity. This means life insurance products have relatively high duration, meaning they are sensitive to changes in interest rates. This can create a significant risk for life insurers if assets and liabilities respond differently to interest rates. For example, a drop in interest rates could increase the present value of an insurer’s liabilities by more than the increase in the value of an insurer’s assets, making it more difficult for the insurer to meet its obligations to policyholders.

Life insurers choose assets with similar durations and liquidity to hedge the risks from their liabilities. This practice, known as asset-liability management (ALM), aims to immunize insurers against interest rate risk. In Canada, it also helps to satisfy regulatory capital requirements, which are established by OSFI or Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) for insurers headquartered in Quebec. 9 ALM typically matches an insurer’s assets and liabilities to the average duration and a range of specific durations to protect against relative changes in long- and short-term interest rates. The latter practice is called key rate duration management.

Fixed-income securities are natural investments for life insurers’ ALM since these securities can have a high duration like life insurance products ( Chart 2 , panel a). Among these securities, Canadian life insurers hold primarily long-term corporate or provincial bonds ( Chart 2 , panel b). Regular cash premiums from policyholders are typically invested into these instruments as quickly as possible, making life insurers a stable source of funding for bond issuers. Provincial bonds and, to a greater degree, corporate bonds are less liquid than Government of Canada (GoC) bonds but have the benefit of higher yields. Despite the relative illiquidity of such bonds, these holdings do not expose insurers to large liquidity risks because their liabilities are also relatively illiquid, as will be explained in the section on liquidity risks .

Life insurers also invest in foreign fixed-income assets and alternative assets with high duration, such as infrastructure, real estate, private debt and private equity. These assets help insurers diversify their portfolios and can, to some extent, substitute for high-duration domestic corporate and provincial bonds, which can be in limited supply ( Chart 2 , panel a). These alternative assets also tend to offer insurers higher yields than bonds.

Chart 2: Life insurers’ assets are concentrated in fixed-income securities, most of which are corporate bonds

Composition of total assets and fixed-income assets as at the end of the first quarter of 2023

Note: Figures include the market value of life insurers’ Canadian-domiciled branches but not life insurers’ mutual funds. Sources: Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and Bank of Canada calculations Last observation: 2023Q1

Life insurers also use derivatives to hedge exposures to risks. These exposures are from two main sources:

• residual interest rate risk
• investment assets risk

Securities and alternative assets with durations similar to those of insurance products are often in limited supply. One reason is that bond issuers rarely raise public debt with terms greater than 30 years while some insurance liabilities have longer terms. Life insurers therefore use derivatives such as interest rate swaps and bond forwards to extend the duration of their portfolios ( Chart 3 ). We find that the average term to maturity of these derivatives is typically long, ranging from 5 to just under 15 years. This means that interest rate derivatives typically carry risks comparable with those of bonds of similar terms to maturity, particularly for interest rate derivatives.

In addition to extending duration, derivatives are well suited to quickly adjust mismatches in duration between assets and liabilities because they are relatively liquid and do not require significant initial cash outlays. These quick adjustments can be needed when the values of assets and liabilities respond differently to a large change in interest rates or other economic conditions, causing their durations to become misaligned. This is called convexity risk, which investors can hedge by using certain derivatives like swaptions.

Derivatives also serve to hedge risks not related to interest rates. For example, investing in foreign assets to match domestic liabilities produces currency risk. Life insurers typically hedge this risk by using cross-currency swaps or currency forwards, which are the second-largest class of derivatives for life insurers ( Chart 3 ). Large investments in corporate bonds expose life insurers to default risk. However, credit derivatives, which provide protection against default, make up less than 1% of the notional value of derivatives held by insurers.

Chart 3: Life insurers use derivatives to hedge against interest rate and foreign exchange risks

Note: Figures include the derivative securities of life insurers’ Canadian-domiciled branches but not life insurers’ mutual funds. Sources: Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and Bank of Canada calculations Last observation: 2023Q1

Life insurers face two main liquidity risks

The business model and investment strategy of Canadian life insurers give rise to two main liquidity risks:

• lower-than-expected cash inflows if a policyholder temporarily or permanently stops paying their premiums—known as a lapse
• higher-than-expected cash outflows if contracts are redeemed before maturity—known as a surrender
• margin requirements on derivatives that can increase the need to deposit cash or securities to protect a derivatives counterparty against potential losses in the event of default

Policyholders’ behaviour may trigger a need for liquidity when economic conditions stress household finances. Policyholders typically cannot lapse or surrender a policy without facing a penalty. Life insurance liabilities can therefore be considered to be relatively illiquid. However, if economic conditions cause widespread unemployment or income loss, the resulting lapses or surrenders could impose large, immediate and unexpected cash outflows on an insurer.

Margin calls on derivatives may become unexpectedly large when the underlying risk factors, such as interest rates or exchange rates, change sharply or become volatile compared with their historical levels. Life insurers are typically positioned in interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives such that a simultaneous rise in interest rates and a weakening of the Canadian dollar would increase margin requirements.

Life insurers use liquidity coverage ratios to manage risks

We heard in our interviews that Canadian life insurers manage liquidity risks by holding a buffer so that they can meet unexpected liquidity draws. Insurers often use a liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) to estimate how large the buffer should be, similar to the framework used by banks, pension funds and other asset managers. An LCR compares the value of the buffer to the total value of possible and expected liquidity draws in a stressed scenario over a given time period. While a standardized LCR is a regulatory requirement for banks, it is not for insurance companies. This means that its specifications may vary across companies. For example, some companies may use an LCR that is based on past stressed periods to prepare for unexpected liquidity needs. Others may take a broader approach that incorporates expected liquidity needs such as operational cash flows. Companies may also have different definitions of a high-quality liquid asset. A typical LCR can be represented as:

\(\displaystyle LCR\) \(\displaystyle=\, \frac{cash + high\ quality\ liquid\ assets + other\ liquidity\ sources}{surrenders + margin\ calls+other\ potential\ outflows}\) \(\displaystyle,\)

where, other liquidity sources in the numerator can include relatively illiquid or volatile assets that are discounted appropriately, committed credit lines with banks and expected cash contributions from policyholders within the LCR time horizon. Therefore, policyholder lapses affect the numerator by reducing expected cash contributions. In the denominator, other potential outflows may include life insurance claims, payments needed for maturing debt and capital needed for private assets. As with other liquidity sources, these inflows or outflows can vary across insurance companies.

Life insurers seek to always keep their LCRs substantially above one so that they can meet significant draws on their liquidity. The assets in buffers may differ across insurers but are typically composed of cash and relatively liquid securities like GoC or provincial bonds and bills, which represent about 20% of insurers’ financial assets ( Chart 4 ).

Chart 4: Liquid assets of the largest life insurers have been relatively stable over time

Responses from interviewees indicate that insurers typically use conservative assumptions to calibrate LCRs. Potential cash outflows are often projected using:

• multiple horizons, such as 10 days, 30 days or longer
• observations from past episodes of stress
• large hypothetical shocks to interest rates, credit spreads and policyholders’ mortality

Correlations between pricing factors, such as interest rates and exchange rates, are usually assumed to produce worst-case outcomes despite any historical tendencies to mitigate liquidity draws. In addition, life insurers make assumptions about the appropriate discount to apply to an asset’s value to capture the fact that prices may be worse in stressed situations. For example, they will assume that the value of provincial bonds will decline by more than the value of GoC bonds during periods of stress.

Life insurers continued purchasing bonds during recent periods of stress

The COVID‑19 crisis in 2020 and the period of rising interest rates in 2022 serve as case studies to better understand how life insurers managed their two main liquidity risks. The number of lapses and surrenders could have been unusually high during the COVID‑19 crisis because of widespread lockdowns that caused employment and income losses for millions of Canadians. Margin requirements on insurers’ derivative positions could have also been higher due to the volatility in financial markets during the COVID‑19 crisis and then again as interest rates rose in 2022.

The life insurers we spoke to indicated that they did not experience large lapses or surrenders from policyholders during the COVID‑19 crisis. Even so, they increased monitoring of their liquidity positions and tested their ability to withstand a potentially higher number of lapses, surrenders and payouts. They also extensively modelled changes in mortality rates from the COVID‑19 pandemic to prepare for a potential increase in payouts, although these did not become a significant draw on liquidity.

During the COVID‑19 crisis, total margin requirements for the three largest Canadian life insurers were not unusually large because the margins for interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives were offsetting ( Chart 5 ).

Chart 5: Market values of interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives offset during the COVID-19 crisis

Market value reflects profits and losses on derivatives contracts due to movements in their underlying price factors and is a proxy for the magnitude and direction of margin requirements. The offsetting market values observed in the first quarter of 2020—the peak of the COVID‑19 crisis—were driven by a decline in interest rates and a strengthening of the US dollar, which are typical movements in these markets during turmoil. In the first quarter of 2020, the three largest Canadian life insurers received margin on interest rate derivatives as the market value of these derivatives increased by $1.5 billion. This mitigated the effect of needing to post margin on foreign exchange derivatives, whose market value decreased by $3 billion.

Given that liquidity risks did not materialize at the peak of the crisis, life insurers continued purchasing long-term corporate and provincial bonds. They did this by rebalancing their portfolios out of short- and medium-term GoC bonds and using regular cash inflows from life insurance premiums.

We find that life insurers sold close to $2 billion worth of GoC bonds and purchased around $5 billion worth of corporate and provincial bonds ( Chart 6 , panel a). They sold bonds in the 2- and 5-year sectors and purchased bonds in the 10- and 30-year sectors ( Chart 6 , panel b).

This activity provided cash to bond sellers and issuers at a time when the demand for cash was high. 10 It also added to overall GoC bond selling during the COVID‑19 crisis when markets were stressed. However, any effect on market liquidity was likely small since around 80% of insurers’ sales of GoC bond took place between February 18 and March 6, the three weeks before the period of peak market illiquidity. 11

Chart 6: Life insurers continued purchasing bonds during peak of COVID-19 crisis

Cumulative net purchases, daily

Note: 30-year refers to any bond with a term greater than 10 years. Data presented include all Canadian life insurance companies and Canadian securities only. Sources: Market Trade Reporting System and Bank of Canada calculations Last observation: April 30, 2020

Similarly, the three largest Canadian life insurers made net purchases of $3.3 billion worth of bonds in secondary markets during the first half of 2022 as interest rates increased. This happened even though the margin requirements for interest rate and foreign exchange derivatives did not offset. During this period, the market value of these life insurers’ derivatives declined by $4.5 billion ( Chart 7 ). Even so, the larger margin requirements did not undermine the ability of the three largest Canadian life insurers to purchase bonds in secondary markets. This may be because the increase in interest rates was gradual and somewhat anticipated, allowing insurers to prepare for liquidity needs without disrupting their regular patterns of investing contributions from policyholders.

Chart 7: Life insurers’ bond purchases remained stable during the period of rising interest rates

Unlike other asset managers who broadly sold bonds during the COVID‑19 crisis, life insurers bought bonds. In addition, the period of rising interest rates in 2022 did not greatly affect life insurers’ usual investment pattern of stable bond purchases. While this behaviour could change under different market conditions, the findings nonetheless provide insights into the nature and severity of past periods of market turmoil that life insurers were able to withstand. This work deepens the Bank’s understanding of market stress and how various participants react during these periods. These insights combined with those the Bank has collected about other asset managers inform the design of the Bank’s policies and facilities.

• 1. For a discussion of pension fund liquidity management see G. Bédard-Pagé, D. Bolduc-Zuluaga, A. Demers, J.-P. Dion, M. Pandey, L. Berger-Soucy and A. Walton , “ COVID‑19 crisis: Liquidity management at Canada’s largest public pension funds ,” Bank of Canada Staff Analytical Note No. 2021-11 (May 2021).[ ← ]
• 2. For an in-depth description of the COVID‑19 crisis in Canada, see J.-S. Fontaine, C. Garriott, J. Johal, J. Lee and A. Uthemann, “ COVID‑19 Crisis: Lessons Learned for Future Policy Research ,” Bank of Canada Staff Discussion Paper No. 2021-2 (February 2021).[ ← ]
• 3. For a summary of the Bank of Canada’s liquidity facilities during the COVID crisis, see G. Johnson, “ A Review of the Bank of Canada’s Market Operations related to COVID‑19 ,” Bank of Canada Staff Discussion Paper No. 2023-6 (March 2023).[ ← ]
• 4. Recent work by the Bank of Canada on asset managers includes J. Sandhu and R. Vala, “ Do hedge funds support liquidity in the Government of Canada bond market? ” Bank of Canada Staff Analytical Note No. 2023-11 (August 2023), and G. Ouellet Leblanc and R. Shotlander, “ What COVID‑19 revealed about the resilience of bond funds ,” Bank of Canada Staff Analytical Note No. 2020-18 (August 2020).[ ← ]
• 5. We are grateful for the generous cooperation of Manulife, Sun Life, Canada Life and Industrial Alliance in this work.[ ← ]
• 6. This excludes assets managed on behalf of their clients, such as mutual funds.[ ← ]
• 7. To learn more about how mutual funds manage liquidity, see G. Ouellet Leblanc and R. Arora, “ How do Canadian Corporate Bond Mutual Funds Meet Investor Redemptions? ” Bank of Canada Staff Analytical Note No. 2018-14 (May 2018).[ ← ]
• 8. While we focus on economic considerations in this description, accounting and regulation can also influence life insurers’ investment strategies.[ ← ]
• 9. OSFI and the AMF impose harmonized capital requirements to ensure solvency for life insurance companies. Insurers regulated by OSFI must satisfy the Life Insurance Capital Adequacy Test. Insurers regulated by AMF must satisfy capital adequacy requirements for life and health insurance.[ ← ]
• 10. For more details, see Bank of Canada, " Fixed-income market liquidity ," Financial System Review—2022 (June 9, 2022).[ ← ]
• 11. For more on market illiquidity, see J.-S. Fontaine, H. Ford and A. Walton, " COVID‑19 and bond market liquidity: alert, isolation and recovery ," Staff Analytical Note No. 2020-14 (July 2020).[ ← ]

Bank of Canada staff analytical notes are short articles that focus on topical issues relevant to the current economic and financial context, produced independently from the Bank’s Governing Council. This work may support or challenge prevailing policy orthodoxy. Therefore, the views expressed in this note are solely those of the authors and may differ from official Bank of Canada views. No responsibility for them should be attributed to the Bank.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.34989/san-2024-7

On this page Table of contents

We use cookies to help us keep improving this website.

Preparing for the tidal wave of Canadian tax changes

2024 Canadian ESG Reporting Insights

Findings from the 2024 Global Digital Trust Insights

PwC Canada's Federal budget analysis

Canada’s Draft Sustainability Disclosure Standards

27th Annual Global CEO Survey—Canadian insights

2023 Canadian holiday outlook

Embracing the future of capital markets

Five opportunities facing Canadian government and public-sector organizations

How can Canadian family business founders and owners create the right outcomes

Managed Services

PwC Canada drives adoption of Generative AI with firmwide implementation of Copilot for Microsoft 365

Our purpose, vision and values

Inclusion and diversity

Apply today! Now hiring students and new graduates

We’re empowering women to thrive in tech

Why join our assurance practice?

Loading Results

No Match Found

2024 Federal Budget analysis

On April 16, 2024, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, presented the government’s budget. The budget:

• increases the capital gains inclusion rate from 1/2 to 2/3, effective June 25, 2024 (up to $250,000 of annual gains for individuals will continue to benefit from the 1/2 inclusion rate)
• raises the lifetime capital gains exemption to $1.25 million and introduces a new 1/3 inclusion rate for up to $2 million of certain capital gains realized by entrepreneurs
• confirms previously announced alternative minimum tax proposals effective January 1, 2024, but softens the impact of these proposals on charitable donations
• provides design and implementation details for the clean electricity investment tax credit
• introduces accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) for, and relief from interest deductibility limitations for debt incurred to fund the construction of, certain purpose-built rental housing
• provides immediate expensing for the cost of certain patents and computer equipment and software
• gives the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) additional information gathering powers

This Tax Insights discusses these and other tax initiatives proposed in the budget.

Tax measures

Capital gains inclusion rate.

• Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption

Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive

• Alternative Minimum Tax

Employee Ownership Trust Tax Exemption

Volunteer firefighters tax credit and search and rescue volunteers tax credit, mineral exploration tax credit for flow-through share investors.

• Canada Child Benefit

Disability Supports Deduction

Charities and qualified donees.

• Home Buyers’ Plan

Qualified Investments for Registered Plans

Deduction for tradespeople’s travel expenses, indigenous child and family services settlement, clean electricity investment tax credit, ev supply chain investment tax credit, clean technology manufacturing investment tax credit.

• Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance

Interest Deductions and Purpose-Built Rental Housing

Taxing vacant lands to incentivize construction, confronting the financialization of housing, halal mortgages, non-compliance with information requests, synthetic equity arrangements, mutual fund corporations, canada carbon rebate for small business, avoidance of tax debts, reportable and notifiable transactions penalty, manipulation of bankrupt status.

• Scientific Research and Experimental Development

International

Crypto-asset reporting, withholding for non-resident service providers, international tax reform.

• Extending GST Relief to Student Residences

GST/HST on Face Masks and Face Shields

Previously announced, personal tax measures.

The budget proposes to increase the capital gains inclusion rate from 1/2 to:

• 2/3 for dispositions after June 24, 2024 for corporations and trusts, and
• 2/3 for the portion of capital gains realized after June 24, 2024 in excess of an annual $250,000 threshold for individuals

The $250,000 annual threshold would apply to capital gains realized by an individual, either directly or indirectly via a partnership or trust, net of:

• current year capital losses
• capital losses of other years applied to reduce current year capital gains, and
• capital gains in respect of which the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE), the proposed Employee Ownership Trust Exemption or the proposed Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive is claimed

As a result, the following rates will apply to capital gains earned by individuals in excess of the $250,000 threshold who are subject to the top marginal income tax rate (i.e. on taxable income exceeding: $355,845 in Alberta, $252,752 in British Columbia, $1,103,478 in Newfoundland and Labrador, $500,000 in the Yukon and $246,752 in all other jurisdictions).

The budget also proposes to decrease the stock option deduction to 1/3 to align with the new capital gains inclusion rate.  Individuals would continue to benefit from a deduction of 1/2 of the taxable benefit up to a combined $250,000 for both employee stock options and capital gains.

The inclusion rate for net capital losses carried forward and applied against capital gains will be adjusted to reflect the inclusion rate of the capital gains being offset.   

Transitional rules will apply to taxation years that begin before June 25, 2024 and end after June 24, 2024 such that capital gains realized before June 25, 2024 would be subject to the 1/2 inclusion rate and capital gains realized after June 24, 2024 (net of any losses) would be subject to a 2/3 inclusion rate. The $250,000 threshold will not be prorated for individuals in 2024 and will apply only against capital gains incurred after June 24, 2024.

Additional details will be provided in the coming months.   

Earning capital gains through a Canadian-controlled private corporation (CCPC)

In most jurisdictions, the increase in the capital gains inclusion rate makes it less attractive for individuals to earn capital gains in excess of $250,000 through a CCPC instead of directly. The  Appendix shows the resulting income tax deferral (prepayment) and the tax cost for an individual who realizes capital gains in excess of $250,000 and pays tax at the top tax rate.

> Back to top

Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE)

The budget proposes to increase the LCGE on eligible capital gains from $1,016,836 to $1,250,000 for dispositions that occur after June 24, 2024. The indexing of the LCGE to inflation will resume in 2026.

The budget introduces the Canadian Entrepreneurs’ Incentive, which will reduce the taxes on capital gains from the disposition of shares by eligible individuals which meet the following conditions:

• at the time of the sale the share was a share of a small business corporation owned directly by an individual
• used principally in an active business carried on primarily in Canada by the CCPC or a related corporation
• certain shares or debts of connected corporations, or
• a combination of these assets
• the individual was a founding investor and the individual held the share for a period of five years prior to the disposition
• at all times since the share subscription until the time immediately before the sale, the individual directly owned shares with a fair market value (FMV) of more than 10% of the FMV of all of the issued and outstanding shares of the corporation and shares entitling the individual to more than 10% of the votes
• throughout the five year period before the disposition the individual was actively engaged in a regular, continuous and substantial basis in the activities of the business
• the share does not represent a direct or indirect interest in a professional corporation, a corporation whose principal asset is the reputation or skill of one or more employees, or a corporation that carries on certain types of businesses including a business operating in the financial, insurance, real estate, food and accommodation, arts, recreation, or entertainment sector, or providing consulting or personal care services
• the share must have been obtained for fair market value consideration

The incentive would provide a capital gains inclusion rate of one half of the prevailing inclusion rate on up to $2 million in capital gains per individual during their lifetime. The $2 million limit will be phased in over 10 years by increments of $200,000 per year reaching $2 million by January 1, 2034.  

Applying the proposed 2/3 inclusion rate would result in an inclusion rate of 1/3 for qualifying dispositions.  This will apply in addition to the LCGE.

This measure would apply to dispositions that occur after December 31, 2024.

Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT)

The 2023 budget announced amendments to change the calculation of the AMT. Draft legislative proposals were released for consultation in the summer of 2023. (For more information, see our Tax Insights “ Proposed changes to the alternative minimum tax: How will it affect individuals and trusts ”.)

The budget proposes to revise the proposed charitable donation tax credit claim to allow individuals to claim 80% when calculating AMT (as opposed to the previously proposed 50%).

The budget also proposes additional amendments to the AMT proposals including:

• allowing deductions for the Guaranteed Income Supplement, social assistance and workers compensation payments
• fully exempting employee ownership trusts (EOTs) from the AMT, and
• allowing certain disallowed credits under the AMT to be eligible for the AMT carry-forward (i.e. the federal political contribution tax credit, investment tax credits (ITCs), and labour-sponsored funds tax credit)

The amendments would apply to taxation years that begin after December 31, 2023.

The budget also proposes certain technical amendments to the AMT legislative proposals to exempt certain trusts for the benefit of Indigenous groups.

The 2023 budget proposed tax rules to create EOTs. The 2023 Fall Economic Statement proposed to exempt $10 million of capital gains on the sale of a business to an EOT subject to certain conditions.

The budget introduces the conditions for this exemption. The exemption will be available to an individual (other than a trust) on the sale of a business to an EOT where the following conditions are met:

• the individual, a personal trust of which the individual is a beneficiary, or a partnership in which the individual is a member, disposes of shares of a corporation that is not a professional corporation
• the transaction is a qualifying business transfer (as defined in the proposed rules for EOTs) in which the trust acquiring the shares is not already an EOT or a similar trust with employee beneficiaries
• throughout the 24 months immediately prior to the qualifying business transfer, the transferred shares were exclusively owned by the individual claiming the exemption, a related person, or a partnership in which the individual is a member; and over 50% of the FMV of the corporation’s assets were used principally in an active business
• at any time prior to the qualifying business transfer, the individual (or their spouse or common-law partner) has been actively engaged in the qualifying business on a regular and continuous basis for a minimum period of 24 months
• immediately after the qualifying business transfer, at least 90% of the beneficiaries of the EOT are resident in Canada

Where multiple individuals dispose of shares to an EOT as part of a qualifying transfer and meet the conditions above, they may each claim an exemption, however the total exemption in respect of the sale cannot exceed $10 million. The individuals would have to agree on the allocation of the exemption.

If an EOT has a disqualifying event within 36 months of the transfer, the exemption claim will be retroactively denied. If this occurs more than 36 months after a transfer the EOT will be deemed to realize a capital gain equal to the total exempt capital gains. A disqualifying event would result where an EOT loses its status as an EOT or if less than 50% of the FMV of the qualifying business shares is attributable to assets used principally in an active business at the beginning of two consecutive years of the corporation.

The EOT, any corporation owned by the EOT that acquired the transferred shares, and the individual will need to elect to be jointly and severally, or solitarily liable for any tax payable by the individual as a result of an exemption being denied due to a disqualifying event occurring during the first 36 months.  

For the purposes of the AMT calculation the capital gain on the transfer would be subject to an inclusion rate of 30% (consistent with the inclusion rate for capital gains eligible for the LCGE).            

An individual’s normal reassessment period as it relates to this exemption is proposed to be extended by an additional three years.

The budget also proposes to expand qualifying business transfers to include the sale of shares to a workers cooperative corporation, provided it meets certain conditions.

These measures will apply to qualifying dispositions of shares that occur between January 1, 2024 through December 31, 2026.

The budget proposes to double the volunteer firefighters tax credit and the search and rescue volunteers tax credit to $6,000 for the 2024 and subsequent taxation years; this increases the maximum annual tax savings to $900.

The budget proposes to extend the eligibility for this credit for an additional year, so that it will apply to flow-through share agreements entered into before April 1, 2025.

Canada Child Benefit (CCB)

A CCB recipient is no longer eligible to claim the CCB in respect of a child in the month following the child’s death. The budget proposes to extend eligibility for the CCB to six months after the child’s death, provided the individual continued to be eligible for the CCB.

The budget proposes to extend the list of expenses recognized for the disability supports deduction.

It also provides that expenses for service animals, as defined under the medical expense tax credit (METC) rules, will be recognized under the disability supports deduction. The individual will choose whether to claim under the METC or the disability supports deduction.

A foreign charity may register as a qualified donee for a 24-month period where it received a gift from His Majesty in right of Canada and it is pursuing certain activities in the national interest of Canada.  The budget proposes to extend the eligibility of a foreign charity to be considered a qualified donee from 24 months to 36 months.  The foreign charity would also be required to submit an annual information return to the CRA that would be made publicly available. The extension will apply to foreign charities registered after April 16, 2024. The reporting requirements will apply to taxation years beginning after April 16, 2024.        

The budget also proposes to simplify the issuance of official donation receipts by removing certain requirements.

Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP)

To help first-time home buyers, the budget proposes to:

• increase, from $35,000 to $60,000, the amount that an eligible home buyer can withdraw from their Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) under the HBP, without subjecting the withdrawal to tax, to buy or build a qualifying home (i.e. a first home or a home for a specified disabled individual), effective for the 2024 and subsequent calendar years, for withdrawals made after April 16, 2024
• temporarily extend the repayment grace period by three years, to five years, under the HBP, so that eligible home buyers who withdraw from their RRSP between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025 will have up to five years before they need to start repayments to their RRSP

Registered plans (RRSPs, Registered Retirement Income Funds, Tax-Free Savings Accounts, Registered Education Savings Plans, Registered Disability Savings Plans, First Home Savings Accounts, and Deferred Profit Sharing Plans) can invest only in qualified investments for those plans. Qualified investments include mutual funds, publicly traded securities, government and corporate bonds and guaranteed investment certificates. Over the years the qualified investment rules have been expanded to include additional investments for certain plans and to reflect the introduction of new types of plans, but there are inconsistencies and the qualified investment rules are difficult to understand in some cases.

Specific issues are currently under consideration. Stakeholders are invited to submit comments by July 15, 2024 as to how the qualified investment rules can be modernized on a prospective basis to improve the clarity and coherence of the registered plans regime.

Eligible tradespeople and apprentices in the construction industry are currently able to deduct up to $4,000 in eligible travel and relocation expenses per year by claiming the labour mobility deduction for tradespeople. A private member’s bill (Bill C-241) was introduced to enact an alternative deduction for certain travel expenses of tradespeople in the construction industry, with no cap on expenses, retroactive to the 2022 taxation year.

The budget announces that the government will consider bringing forward amendments to the Income Tax Act (ITA) to provide a single, harmonized deduction for tradespeople’s travel that respects the intent of Bill C-241.

The budget proposes to amend the ITA to exclude from taxation the income of the trusts established under the First Nations Child and Family Services, Jordan’s Principle, and Trout Class Settlement Agreement. This will also ensure that payments received by class members as beneficiaries of the trusts will not be included when computing income for federal income tax purposes.

This measure will apply to the 2024 and subsequent taxation years.

Business tax measures

The 2023 budget proposed a refundable ITC for clean electricity, equal to 15% of the capital cost of eligible property. The 2024 budget provides the design and implementation details of the ITC, including the eligibility criteria. It also includes special rules for property that generates electricity from natural gas with carbon capture and property used to transmit electrical energy between provinces or territories, as well as details of the compliance and recovery process.

The ITC will be available only to eligible Canadian corporations, which are defined as:

• taxable Canadian corporations and pension investment corporations
• provincial and territorial Crown corporations (subject to additional requirements)
• corporations owned by municipalities or Indigenous communities

Property eligible for the ITC includes equipment used to generate electricity from:

• solar, wind or water energy (certain class 43.1 property, but hydroelectric installations would not be subject to a capacity limit)
• concentrated solar energy (as defined for the purposes of the proposed clean technology ITC)
• nuclear fission, including heat generating equipment (as defined for the purposes of the proposed clean technology ITC, without the generating capacity limits and other certain requirements of that credit)
• geothermal energy, including heat generating equipment, if it is used exclusively for that purpose (excluding equipment that is part of a system that extracts fossil fuel for sale)
• specified waste materials, as part of a system

Eligible property also includes equipment that is:

• stationary electricity storage equipment and equipment used for pumped hydroelectric energy storage (excluding any that uses a fossil fuel in operation)
• part of an eligible natural gas energy system (special rules apply)
• used for transmission of electricity between provinces and territories (special rules apply)

Previously proposed labour requirements must be met to qualify for the 15% ITC, otherwise a 5% ITC is available. The ITC will be subject to potential repayment obligations, repayable in proportion to the FMV of the particular property when it has been converted to an ineligible use, exported from Canada, or disposed of.

The ITC will be available for new eligible property (i.e. has not been used for any purposes before its acquisition) that is acquired and becomes available for use after April 15, 2024 and before 2035 in respect of projects that did not begin construction before March 28, 2023.

The budget introduces the EV supply chain ITC, equal to 10% of the cost of buildings used in Canada in the following electric vehicle supply chain segments:

• electric vehicle assembly
• electric vehicle battery production
• cathode active material production

To qualify for the ITC, the taxpayer (or member of a group of related taxpayers) must claim the clean technology manufacturing ITC (CTMITC) in all three of the segments (or must claim the CTMITC in two of the three segments and hold at least a qualifying minority interest in an unrelated corporation that claims the CTMITC in the third segment – the building costs of the unrelated corporation would also qualify for the new ITC).

The ITC is effective for property that is acquired and becomes available for use after December 31, 2023. The ITC will be reduced to 5% for 2033 and 2034 and 0% after 2034. Design and implementation details of the ITC will be provided in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The 2023 budget proposed a clean technology manufacturing ITC, and draft legislative proposals were released in December 2023. The 2024 budget proposes to update the clean technology manufacturing ITC for production of qualifying minerals (such as copper, nickel, cobalt, lithium, graphite and rate earth elements) that occur at polymetallic projects (i.e. projects engaged in the production of multiple minerals) by:

• clarifying that the value of qualifying materials will be used as the appropriate output metric when assessing the extent to which property is used (or expected to be used) for qualifying mineral activities producing qualifying materials
• modifying eligible expenditures to include investments in eligible property used in qualifying mineral activities that are expected to produce primarily qualifying materials at mine or well sites, including tailing ponds and mills located at these sites (50% or more of the financial value of the output comes from qualifying materials)

A safe harbour rule will apply to the recapture rule for all qualifying mineral activities, to mitigate against the effects of mineral price volatility on the potential recapture of the ITC, the details of which will be provided at a later date.

Accelerated Capital Cost Allowance (CCA)

Purpose-built rental housing.

The budget provides an accelerated CCA of 10% for new eligible purpose-built rental projects that begin construction after April 15, 2024 and before January 1, 2031, and are available for use before January 1, 2036.

Eligible property will be new purpose-built rental housing that is a residential complex:

• with at least four private apartment units, or 10 private rooms or suites, and
• in which at least 90% of residential units are held for long-term rental

The Accelerated Investment Incentive (AII), which suspends the half-year rule, will continue to apply to eligible property put in use before 2028. The accelerated CCA will not apply to renovations of existing residential complexes, but new additions to an existing structure will be eligible. Projects that convert existing non-residential real estate into a residential complex will be eligible.

Productivity-enhancing assets

The budget provides immediate expensing (i.e. a 100% first-year CCA deduction) for property that is acquired after April 15, 2024 and becomes available for use before January 1, 2027, for the following CCA classes of assets:

• class 44 (patents or rights to use patented information for a limited or unlimited period)
• class 46 (data network infrastructure equipment and related systems software)
• class 50 (general-purpose electronic data-processing equipment and systems software)

The accelerated CCA will be available only for the year in which the property becomes available for use. For a short taxation year, the accelerated CCA must be prorated and will not be available in the following taxation year. Property that becomes available for use after 2026 and before 2028 will continue to benefit from the AII.

Property that has been used (or acquired for use) for any purpose before it is acquired by the taxpayer will be eligible for the accelerated CCA only if both of the following conditions are met:

• neither the taxpayer nor a non-arm’s length person previously owned the property, and
• the property has not been transferred to the taxpayer on a tax-deferred “rollover” basis

The excessive interest and financing expenses limitation (EIFEL) rules restrict a Canadian taxpayer’s deductions for interest and financing expenses, based upon a percentage of its “tax-EBITDA” (i.e. its taxable income, adjusted for items such as interest expenses, depreciation and amortization). For a discussion of the EIFEL rules, see our  Tax Insights “ Bill C-59 ─ Excessive interest and financing expenses limitation (EIFEL) regime .” The EIFEL rules currently include a single sector-specific exemption, for certain interest and financing expenses relating to public-private partnership (P3) infrastructure projects. The budget proposes to extend this election, on an elective basis, for certain interest and financing expenses relating to arm’s length financing that is used to build or acquire certain purpose-built rental housing located in Canada. This exemption will be effective for taxation years beginning after September 30, 2023, consistent with the EIFEL rules more generally. However, this exemption will be available only for expenses incurred before January 1, 2036.

The government is concerned that some landowners are holding residentially zoned vacant land as a speculative investment. The budget announces that the government will consider introducing a new tax on residentially zoned vacant land to spur development. The government will launch consultations later this year.

In March 2024, the government began consultations on how federal policies can better support the needs of all Canadians seeking to become homeowners. The government will provide an update in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The budget announces the government’s intention to restrict the acquisition of existing single-family homes by very large corporate investors. The government will consult in the coming months and provide further details in the 2024 Fall Economic Statement.

The budget announces that the government is exploring new measures to expand access to alternative financing products for home purchasers, such as halal mortgages. These measures could include changes in the tax treatment of these products or a new regulatory regime for financial service providers, while ensuring adequate consumer protections are in place.

The budget proposes several amendments to the CRA’s information gathering provisions in the ITA, with the intent of enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of tax audits and facilitating the collection of tax revenues on a timelier basis. These changes include:

• allowing the CRA to issue a new type of notice, referred to as a “notice of non-compliance” and to levy a monetary penalty
• permitting the CRA to specify that any required information (oral or written) or documents be provided under oath or affirmation
• imposing a penalty when the CRA obtains a compliance order against a taxpayer, and
• extending the stop the clock rules (which suspend the counting of days in the assessment limitation period), so that these rules apply when a taxpayer seeks judicial review of any requirement or notice issued to the taxpayer by the CRA in relation to the audit and enforcement process, and during any period that a notice of non-compliance is outstanding

Analogous amendments are also proposed to other federal tax statutes administered by the CRA. The budget also proposes certain technical amendments to ensure the rules meet their policy objectives.

These amendments would come into force upon royal assent of the enacting legislation.

The ITA allows a corporation to deduct the amount of any dividends received on a share of a corporation resident in Canada, subject to certain limitations.

One of these limitations is an anti-avoidance rule that denies the dividend received deduction in connection with synthetic equity arrangements. Synthetic equity arrangements include arrangements in which a person receives a dividend on a share, but all or substantially all of the risk of loss and opportunity for gain or profit (the “economic exposure”) in respect of the share are provided to another person.

Where a taxpayer enters into a synthetic equity arrangement in respect of a share, the taxpayer is generally obligated to compensate the other person for the amount of any dividends paid on the share. This compensation payment may result in a tax deduction for the taxpayer in addition to the dividend received deduction. Unless the anti-avoidance rule applies to deny the dividend received deduction, a tax loss would generally arise as a result of the two deductions.

The anti-avoidance rule incorporates certain exceptions, including where the taxpayer establishes that no tax-indifferent investor has all or substantially all of the economic exposure in respect of the share. An associated exception is also available for synthetic equity arrangements traded on a derivatives exchange.

The budget proposes to remove the tax-indifferent investor exception (including the exchange traded exception) to the anti-avoidance rule. This measure would prevent taxpayers from claiming the dividend received deduction for dividends received on a share in respect of which there is a synthetic equity arrangement.

This measure would apply to dividends received after December 31, 2024.

A mutual fund is a type of investment vehicle that allows investors to pool their money and invest in a portfolio of investments without purchasing the investments directly. A mutual fund corporation is a mutual fund organized as a corporation that meets certain conditions set out in the ITA.

The ITA includes special rules for mutual fund corporations that facilitate conduit treatment for investors (shareholders). For example, these rules generally allow capital gains realized by a mutual fund corporation to be treated as capital gains realized by its investors. In addition, a mutual fund corporation is not subject to mark-to-market taxation and can elect capital gains treatment on the disposition of Canadian securities.

To qualify as a mutual fund corporation under the ITA, a corporation must satisfy several conditions, including that it must be a “public corporation”. A corporation can meet this condition if a class of its shares is listed on a designated stock exchange in Canada. A corporation that is controlled by a corporate group may satisfy this condition, and qualify as a mutual fund corporation, even though it is not widely held. The government is concerned that this could allow a corporate group to use a mutual fund corporation to benefit from the special rules available to these corporations in an unintended manner.

Although the government believes this planning can be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA, the budget proposes specific amendments to the ITA to preclude a corporation from qualifying as a mutual fund corporation where it is controlled by or for the benefit of a corporate group (including a corporate group that consists of any combination of corporations, individuals, trusts, and partnerships that do not deal with each other at arm’s length). Exceptions would be provided to ensure that the measure does not adversely affect mutual fund corporations that are widely held pooled investment vehicles.

This measure would apply to taxation years that begin after 2024.

The budget introduces the Canada Carbon Rebate for Small Business, to return a portion of the federal backstop pollution pricing fuel charge proceeds collected from a province. This will be an automatic refundable tax credit for CCPCs with less than 500 employees in Canada in the calendar year in which the fuel charge begins. The tax credit in respect of the 2019-20 to 2023-24 fuel charge years will be available to a CCPC that files a tax return for its 2023 taxation year by July 15, 2024 (with similar timelines for future fuel charge years).

The tax credit amount:

• is determined for each applicable province in which the eligible corporation had employees in the calendar year in which the fuel charge year begins; and
• is equal to the number of persons employed by the eligible corporation in the province in that calendar year multiplied by a payment rate specified by the Minister of Finance for the province for the corresponding fuel charge year

The ITA includes an anti-avoidance rule that is intended to prevent taxpayers from avoiding payment of their tax liabilities by transferring their assets to non-arm’s length persons. The effect of this tax debt avoidance rule is to make the transferee jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable with the transferor for the transferor’s tax debts, to the extent that the value of the property transferred exceeds the amount of consideration given by the transferee for the property.

The ITA contains a number of rules that address various planning techniques employed by taxpayers attempting to circumvent the tax debt avoidance rule, as well as a penalty for those who engage in, participate in, assent to, or acquiesce in planning activity that they know, or would reasonably be expected to know, is tax debt avoidance planning.

The budget includes a new specific measure to address tax debt avoidance planning (although the government believes this planning can also be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA). The measure would apply in the following circumstances:

• there has been a transfer of property from a tax debtor to another person
• as part of the same transaction or series of transactions, there has been a separate transfer of property from a person other than the tax debtor to a transferee that does not deal at arm’s length with the tax debtor, and
• one of the purposes of the transaction or series is to avoid joint and several, or solidary, liability

Where these conditions are met, the property transferred by the tax debtor would be deemed to have been transferred to the transferee for the purposes of the tax debt avoidance rule. This would ensure that the tax debt avoidance rule applies in situations where property has been transferred from a tax debtor to a person and, as part of the same transaction or series, property has been received by a non-arm’s length person. The penalty applicable to those who participate in tax debt avoidance planning would also be extended to this proposed new rule.

In many cases, tax debt avoidance planning is facilitated by a planner who receives a significant fee, which is effectively funded by a portion of the avoided tax debt. The courts have held that a taxpayer who engages in tax debt avoidance planning is normally not jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable for the portion of the tax debt that has effectively been retained by the planner as a fee. The budget proposes that taxpayers who participate in tax debt avoidance planning be jointly and severally, or solidarily, liable for the full amount of the avoided tax debt, including any portion that has effectively been retained by the planner.

Similar amendments would be made to comparable provisions in other federal statutes.

These measures would apply to transactions or series of transactions that occur after April 15, 2024.

The ITA includes a general rule providing that a person who fails to file or make a return or comply with certain specified rules is guilty of an offence, and liable to penalties of up to $25,000 and imprisonment for up to a year. The mandatory disclosure rules in the ITA also include specific penalties that apply in these circumstances, making the application of this general penalty provision unnecessary.

The budget therefore proposes to remove from the scope of the general penalty provision the failure to file an information return in respect of a reportable or notifiable transaction under the mandatory disclosure rules.

This amendment would be deemed to have come into force on June 22, 2023, which is the day the enhanced mandatory disclosure rules received royal assent.

Under the ITA, losses and other tax attributes that arise from expenditures for which a taxpayer did not ultimately bear the cost are generally not recognized. The ITA contains a set of debt forgiveness rules that apply where a commercial debt is settled for less than its principal amount. These rules generally reduce tax attributes by the amount of debt that is forgiven and, where tax attributes have been fully reduced, the rules cause an income inclusion equal to half of the remaining forgiven amount. The ITA also contains a rule that entitles an insolvent corporation to a corresponding deduction to offset all or part of an income inclusion from the debt forgiveness rules.

Bankrupt taxpayers are generally excluded from these debt forgiveness rules. Instead, a separate loss restriction rule applies to extinguish the losses of bankrupt corporations that have received an absolute order of discharge.

The government is concerned that some taxpayers have sought to manipulate the bankrupt status of an insolvent corporation, with a view to benefiting from the exception in the debt forgiveness rules while also avoiding the loss restriction rule applicable to bankrupt corporations. This planning seeks to preserve the losses and other tax attributes of the insolvent corporation (which would otherwise be eliminated upon the forgiveness of its debts), so that these attributes can be acquired and used by a profitable corporation. This planning is the subject of a designated transaction under the notifiable transactions element of the mandatory disclosure rules.

Although the government believes that manipulation of bankrupt status can be challenged based on existing rules in the ITA, the budget proposes a specific legislative measure to address this issue: repealing the exception to the debt forgiveness rules for bankrupt corporations and the loss restriction rule applicable to bankrupt corporations. This change would subject bankrupt corporations to the general rules that apply to other corporations whose commercial debts are forgiven. The bankruptcy exception to the debt forgiveness rules would remain in place for individuals. While bankrupt corporations would be subject to the reduction of their loss carryforward balances and other tax attributes upon debt forgiveness, as insolvent corporations they could qualify for relief from the debt forgiveness income inclusion rule provided under the existing deduction for insolvent corporations.

These proposals would apply to bankruptcy proceedings that are commenced on or after April 16, 2024.

Scientific Research and Experimental Development (SR&ED)

The government launched a consultation on the existing SR&ED tax incentives on January 31, 2024, which closed on April 15, 2024. The budget announces a second phase of consultations, to focus on specific policy parameters, explore how Canadian public companies could become eligible for the enhanced SR&ED ITC and inform how additional funding announced by the budget can support future enhancements to the SR&ED program. Further details of the consultation will be released on the Department of Finance Canada website at a later date.

International tax measures

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has developed a framework for the automatic exchange of tax information relating to transactions in crypto-assets, the Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF). The budget proposes to implement the CARF in Canada. The new reporting rules will apply to crypto-asset service providers that are resident in Canada, or carry on business in Canada, and that provide services effectuating exchange transactions in crypto-assets. These service providers will need to report certain information regarding their customers and crypto-asset transactions. The budget also includes proposed amendments to the Canadian rules implementing the OECD’s Common Reporting Standard, including changes relating to electronic money products and central bank digital currencies. These measures will apply to 2026 and subsequent calendar years.

A person who makes a payment to a non-resident for services rendered in Canada is currently required to withhold 15% of the payment and remit that amount to the CRA. This is intended to serve as a prepayment of tax that the non-resident may ultimately owe in Canada. Certain non-residents do not owe Canadian tax for these services, e.g. due to exemptions in tax treaties, or exemptions for specific activities like international shipping. In these circumstances, the CRA may provide an advance waiver from the withholding obligation for specific transactions, or the non-residents may apply for refunds of amounts that have already been withheld. The budget proposes to give the CRA legislative authority to grant single waivers that cover multiple transactions occurring over a specific time period, where certain conditions are satisfied. This measure will take effect upon royal assent of the enacting legislation.

The OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting has developed a two-pillar plan to reform the international tax system, as part of the “BEPS 2.0” initiative. On October 8, 2021, Canada and 135 other countries in the Inclusive Framework committed to adopt this plan (for a discussion on that commitment, see our  Tax Insights  “ The new international tax framework and Canada’s digital services tax ”). The budget provides an update on the two pillars of this international tax reform initiative.

Pillar One will introduce new rules for allocating taxing rights between countries to address challenges raised by the digital economy. These rules will generally apply to multinational enterprises (MNEs) with annual revenue above €20 billion and profit margins above 10%. The right to tax a portion of these MNEs’ profits will be reallocated to market countries (i.e. the countries where the MNEs’ users and customers are located).

The budget reaffirms Canada’s commitment to bringing Pillar One into effect as soon as a critical mass of countries is willing to participate. In the meantime, Canada is moving ahead with its plan to enact the Digital Services Tax (DST). Implementing legislation for the DST is currently before Parliament in Bill C-59. The DST will take effect beginning in calendar year 2024, with the first year covering taxable revenues earned since January 1, 2022. (For a discussion of the DST, see our  Tax Insights  “ Digital Services Tax: One step closer to becoming a reality .”)

Pillar Two will introduce a 15% global minimum tax. This tax will generally apply to MNEs with global revenues of at least €750 million. These MNEs will be required to compute their effective tax rate (ETR) in each country where they operate. If the ETR for a particular country is below 15%, a top-up tax will be imposed, to raise that ETR to 15% (this top-up tax may be reduced by a substance-based income exclusion, which is computed based on the payroll costs and net book value of tangible assets located in the jurisdiction). Draft legislative proposals for a Global Minimum Tax Act to implement the Pillar Two regime in Canada were released for public comment in August 2023 (for a discussion of those proposals, see our  Tax Insights  “ Canada releases draft Global Minimum Tax Act ”). The budget states that Canada is moving forward with this implementing legislation and intends to introduce it in Parliament soon.

Sales tax measures

Extending goods and services tax (gst) relief to student residences.

On September 14, 2023, the government announced that it would temporarily remove the GST from new purpose-built rental housing projects (i.e. apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences built specifically for long-term rental accommodation) by implementing an Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for new qualifying purpose-built rental housing projects (for more information, see our  Tax Insights  “ Enhanced GST rental rebate for rental apartments that begin construction after September 13, 2023 ").

To ensure that universities, public colleges and school authorities can also claim the Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for student residences that are built for short-term use, the budget proposes to amend the  Excise Tax Act  to allow them to apply the normal GST/Harmonized sales tax (HST) rules that apply to other builders (i.e. paying GST/HST on the final value of the building) in respect of new student housing projects.

The budget also proposes to relax the rebate conditions so that universities, public colleges and school authorities that operate on a not-for-profit basis (i.e. those that would currently qualify for the Public Service Body rebates under the GST/HST) can claim the 100% rebate in respect of any new student residence that they acquire or construct provided it is primarily for the purpose of providing a place of residence for their students.

The proposed measures would apply to student residences that begin construction after September 13, 2023 and before 2031, and that complete construction before 2036.

The budget proposes to repeal the temporary zero rating of certain face masks or respirators and certain face shields under the GST/HST for supplies made after April 30, 2024.

Previously Announced Measures

The budget confirms that the government will proceed with the following previously announced measures, as modified to take into account consultations, deliberations and legislative developments since their announcement or release:

• legislative proposals released on December 20, 2023, which include measures relating to the clean hydrogen ITC, the clean technology manufacturing ITC, concessional loans and short-term rentals
• legislative and regulatory proposals announced in the 2023 Fall Economic Statement, which include measures relating to the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, the expansion of eligibility for the clean technology and clean electricity ITC, the GST/HST joint venture election rules and the Underused Housing Tax
• legislative and regulatory amendments to implement the Enhanced (100%) GST Rental Rebate for purpose-built rental housing announced on September 14, 2023
• the carbon capture, utilization and storage and the clean technology ITCs and labour requirements related to certain “clean economy” ITCs
• enhancing the reduced tax rates for zero-emission technology manufacturers
• flow-through shares and the critical mineral exploration tax credit – lithium from brines
• Retirement Compensation Arrangements
• strengthening the Intergenerational Business Transfer framework
• the income tax and GST/HST treatment of credit unions
• a tax on repurchases of equity
• modernizing the General Anti-Avoidance Rule
• global minimum tax and DST
• technical amendments to GST/HST rules for financial institutions
• providing relief in relation to the GST/HST treatment of payment card clearing services
• extending the quarterly duty remittance option to all licensed cannabis producers
• revised Luxury Tax draft regulations to provide greater clarity on the tax treatment of luxury items
• technical tax amendments to the ITA and the Income Tax Regulations
• legislative amendments to implement changes discussed in the transfer pricing consultation paper released on June 6, 2023
• tax measures announced in the 2023 budget, including the dividend received deduction by financial institutions
• substantive CCPCs
• technical amendments to the ITA and Income Tax Regulations
• legislative amendments to implement the hybrid mismatch arrangements rules announced in the 2021 budget

The budget also reaffirms the government’s commitment to move forward, as required, with technical amendments to improve the certainty and integrity of the tax system.

Integration – Capital gains ($)

(taxation year ended December 31, 2024, and $10,000 of capital gains earned after June 24, 2024)

This table shows:

• the income tax deferral (prepayment) if capital gains in excess of $250,000 are earned and retained in a corporation as opposed to being earned directly by an individual
• the tax (cost) if the after-tax corporate income is paid out as a dividend to the shareholder in 2024

The table assumes:

• the individual is in the top marginal tax rate
• no capital gains deductions are available
• the non-taxable portion of the capital gain is distributed as a tax-free capital dividend
• the taxable dividend paid is sufficient to generate a full refund of refundable tax 

Download a PDF

Tax Insights: 2024 Federal budget ─ Supporting housing, raising taxes

Dean Landry

National Tax Leader, PwC Canada

Tel: +1 416 815 5090

© 2018 - 2024 PwC. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the PwC network and/or one or more of its member firms, each of which is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details.

• Cookies info
• Terms & Conditions
• Site Provider
• Accessibility