During economic downturns such as those we have experienced globally in recent years, it is often the case that the seeds of a return to health is provided by new start-ups.
Certainly, there are large numbers of people who suddenly flood the labour market as companies dispose of their services in the event of financial difficulty, and many of these choose to use their redundancy payments — if there are any — to set up a new business.
It is these new companies that will grow to become the large companies that send business travellers around the world in the future.
Our chart this week shows the number of new businesses set up in five European countries over the past few years. Many of the companies starting up are one-person enterprises and failure rate is usually quite high.
Note: Data from national statistics authorities. No data for 2014 for Sweden and UK
The rate of start-ups depends on a number of factors, not just redundancy payments. The ease with which people can start new companies is one of the main issues, while the level of corporate taxation is another. Confidence in the ability to run a successful company is a third major factor.
Even with those barriers, the number of active companies is generally increasing, meaning more potential business travel.
In the United Kingdom, for example, the number of active companies increases by around 2% a year; in 2011, for example, the number of active companies grew by around 12% but bankruptcies stood at around 10%, yielding the net figure.
For suppliers to the business travel sector this means that even if existing companies are cutting back on the amount of business travel, new enterprises are priming the pump.