Nearly two thirds (62%) of companies around the world expect to maintain or increase their travel spend in the coming year.
A new global survey of senior finance executives by American Express found that 38% said they planned to cut travel spend compared with 85% in the same survey last year.
The third annual American Express/CFO Research Global Business & Spending Monitor found that travel spend was more likely to rise in countries expecting strong economic growth.
The survey said: "While 26% of respondents overall say they expect to spend more on business travel over the next 12 months, 61% of respondents from India, 52% of those from Hong Kong, and 45% of those from Singapore anticipate an increase in spending on business travel."
Amex said the pressure to restrict travel was beginning to ease.
It said that in the 2009 survey, 81% of respondents said they were likely to restrict travel for staff meetings while 79% said they would curtail attendance at conferences.
But the 2010 poll found that only 34% now planned to cut travel to internal meetings and 35% to cut travel to conferences.
Amex said: "These results show that as economic conditions improve, companies are restoring spending in order to support growth, but they're doing so with caution and discipline."
Nearly four fifths (78%) of the executives said they expected to maintain or increase travel for meetings with suppliers, 81% for meetings with existing clients and 70% to develop new business.
The survey received replies from 479 executives in 212 countries, including 13 in Europe.
It revealed that executives in the UK were more optimistic about future growth than their counterparts in the US and Germany.
More than eight out of ten (81%) in Britain said they expected or had seen a "sustained increase in demand for their products and services by the third quarter of this year".
More than a third (36%) said they expected to recruit more staff this year.
The survey noted: "Over the next year, 23% of UK senior finance executives in this survey believe UK PLC will see substantial economic expansion, compared to only 1% of American and 13% of German senior finance executives.
"Over seven out of 10 UK respondents (71%) hold a more moderate view and anticipate at least modest economic expansion, compared to 66% of German and 63% of US finance executives who feel the same way about their countries' economies."
Brendan Walsh, Amex Europe's senior vp for commercial cards, said: "A positive side effect of the downturn is that firms have been forced to improve efficiencies and dramatically reduce costs - strategies that might not have been the most urgent priorities in the boom times."
"We see this focus increasingly being applied to business - to - business expenses.
"Firms we work with are now focused on putting more of their spending on company cards."
www.americanexpress.com/corporate.