A major travel management company and a travel managers' association both said this week that business travel was holding steady despite the economic downturn.
Hogg Robinson Group (HRG) said it had seen "little evidence" in the first quarter of its financial year to the suggest business travel was reducing significantly.
A survey by the UK and Ireland Institute of Travel Management (ITM) found that the bulk of British companies (80%) had no plans to freeze travel.
Even those contemplating such a step said they expected it to be only short term.
In its interim statement for April 1 to July 21, HRG said: "Route patterns for business travellers are changing with cheaper alternatives being sought, but so far our clients are still travelling."
The statement added that trading in the three months had "generally held up well" with client revenue up by "around 3%."
HRG described the economic conditions as "challenging" but added: "Whilst we believe that it is prudent to remain cautious about the outlook for managed travel this year, the longer-term trends remain relatively favourable."
It said the demand in its events and meetings management division and from SMEs remained similar to what it was in the same period in 2007-2008.
David Radcliffe, HRG's ceo, said: "Despite the difficult economic environment, at this early stage of the financial year, the Group's trading has been satisfactory and we remain cautiously optimistic about our prospects for growth in the full year."
The ITM survey of 175 travel managers and procurement professionals revealed that about 80% were ready to "batten down the hatches" if the economy got worse.
Among the favoured ways to cut spending were eliminating "non-essential" travel, making more use of alternatives like video conferencing and holding more meetings at local venues.
The survey found that so far rising prices had had only a "moderate" affect on travel costs.
It also found that most companies (75%) reported that staff were largely complying with requests to cut travel spending by stopping or reducing trips or by going economy rather than premium.
Colin Goldney of Argate Consulting, ITM's research partner, said: "Behavioural change due to economic and environmental factors suggests we may be about to witness a paradigm shift in the business travel sector.
"If companies look to technology over mandating travel bans, this presents different options for the future.
"When the economy picks up, changes in behaviour due to increased exposure to video conferencing could result in executives travelling far less than before."
* see BTE Analysis