Only minority planning further cuts
More than half of travel managers (55%) expect their travel budgets to stay the same in 2010, according to a new survey by Egencia.
Only 9% say they will cut it during the year while 13% said it was likely to increase.
But the poll of 100 buyer clients by the online agency also found that 23% did not know which way their budget would go.
In its 2008, 19% had expected to see budgets cuts while only 10% thought they would grow.
The Egencia 2010 Global Outlook and Negotiability Index found that in2009, 59% of its buyers had had budgets cut while 29% said their had been no change.
Only 10% said it had increased.
The Outlook said it there were positive signs of growth in European markets and it expected air travel, both long and short haul, to European destinations to increase during the year.
This combined with cuts in capacity and consolidation in the aviation industry could push air fares up although there was still a drop in demand for business class seats and the economic situation was still "uncertain".
On hotels, Egencia predicted that average daily rates in top business destinations visited by European would rise slightly by 1%-3%.
In terms of air deals, Egencia said there were good negotiating conditions for corporates in Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and Milan.
But negotiating conditions was less favourable for them in London, Paris, Frankfurt and Berlin.
Egencia said that the main reason for the fall in business travel, put forward by 75% of its respondents, was tighter budgets.
But travel buyers were also using various methods to cut costs. These included booking in advance (57%), enforcing travel policy (52%), tracking unused tickets (45%), enforcing pre-trip approval (44%) and using a lower class of service (23%).
www.egencia.com