Our chart last week showing the gender gap of spend on business travel was very popular. As a result, we thought we would look at some of the other figures included in the Office for National Statistics' annual publication that looks at travel trends across the UK.
What is immediately clear is the close correlation between the number of trips and the amount spent, suggesting that the average cost of trips has remained relatively constant over three and a half decades.
However, the chart shows spending at current prices. When inflation is factored in the picture that emerges is very different. In 1980, the average spend on a business trip was £718; by 2014, this figure had dropped to £407 (based on 1995 constant prices or £607 in today's prices).
The data shows that the cost per trip fell significantly at the times of the recessions in the early 1990s, after the bursting of the dotcom bubble after the turn of the new millennium and following the global economic downturn in 2008.
A general downward trend is evident beyond these falls and may be attributed to the rise of managed travel in the UK in the past 20-30 years.
Source: ONS, Travel Trends 2014