Business travellers are back on the road and their companies are increasing their budgets, according to the latest figures from GetThere.
Jason Geall, GetThere’s director for Europe and the Middle East said businesses are encouraging staff to travel more to generate new business, but there is still pressure to keep costs down.
Whie the volume of business travel has seen a definite period of recovery, corporates remain focused on reducing their travel expenses, the survey, of businesses that use Sabre’s GetThere, revealed.
“Prudent travel practices remain intact because technology is now in place to help companies control their travel policies, and best practices introduced during the credit crunch remain even as corporate travel volumes return to pre-recession levels,” said Geall.
Nearly two thirds of the survey respondents (61%) expect their travel budget to increase by up to 10% in 2011, while around a third expect a rise of up to a third.
Alongside the deepening of pockets is a push for higher adoption rates of online booking, said Geall.
“Adoption levels have reached record levels across Europe and we expect this to increase in line with the focus on savings,” he said.
With more online booking, respondents to the survey said they had already made savings – for example, an average saving of 70% on agency fees, and between 18% and 24% in air fares.
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