Companies are targeting internal meetings as a major area for savings on corporate travel spend.
A new survey by the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE) has found that 39% of companies cutting back on travel budgets are reducing internal meetings.
The poll also found that 31% of companies were cutting their travel budgets across the board while 16% were reducing international travel.
But the survey found that only 33% of respondents were actually planning to cut their travel budgets next year.
A surprising 36% said they would spend more while 31% said they would spend about the same as 2008.
Susan Gurley, ACTE's executive director, said those spending the same would ultimately travel less as costs have climbed significantly.
"Even those who stated they are spending more may find they are barely keeping up with cost increases," Ms Gurley said.
The two main reasons companies (47%) gave for cuts were the economic uncertainty and rising fuel costs.
But 26% cited other reasons including internal changes and a change in business focus.
Ms Gurley said ACTE had been focusing in the past year on "three techniques: value management, strategic meetings management and demand management, to discourage the deleterious decision to simply cut travel across the board."
See www.acte.org.