The 11th annual Barclaycard Business Travel Survey, has revealed that despite pressures on business travel budgets, concerns about the environment and advances in communications there appears to be no sign of a slow down in business travel. The new research shows that more than three-quarters (78%) of people had travelled for business either the same amount or more in 2006 compared to 2005 (34% travelling the same and 44% travelling more).
The research also found that people still believe that travel is an essential part of their business. An overwhelming number of business travellers (79%) believed that their business had benefited from business travel with only 3% stating that they could have achieved the same success for their company without travelling.
The findings will come as good news for travel providers. The survey questioned more than 4,000 business travellers across the country and builds a comprehensive picture of the UK's business traveller, gauging views on business travel and travel behaviour.
Of the 44% of business travellers who were travelling more during 2006, almost half (47%) cited business expansion either in the UK or abroad as the reason, suggesting that the economy has continued to grow over the last 12 months.
Barclaycard Business director of commercial cards Denise Leleux said: "It is clear that despite modern communications such as video conferencing people still believe that travel is an essential part of business. The vast majority of business people accept that travelling is still efficient and effective and that without it they could not produce the same results."
The survey also found that businesses are still covering many miles to conduct their business needs. One in five business people (21%) travelled more than 500 miles per week with 16% travelling up to a 1,000 miles. Nearly three-quarters of business people (73%) stated that their majority of business travel was within the UK.
Despite the expansion of the EU, such as the new accession states in Eastern Europe, and the rise of the Asian economies, business travel to these areas remained relatively low. Only 10% of travellers stated that they had travelled to Eastern Europe the most, while 6% had travelled to China the most and 3% had travelled to India, both down on last year. The Middle East and Africa have seen an increase in business traffic, with an increase of 4% to the Middle East and an increase of 2% to Africa.