Companies have taken stock during the recession and will continue to book "smarter", according to American Express's UK head of sales.
Mark Douglas said that what became standard practice during the recession will continue: "Our view is nothing is ever going to be the same in business travel."
"We've termed the coming year the new normal," Douglas told ABTN.
"As we come out of the recession companies want to travel more. Businesses recognise that if they put their sales people in front of prospective clients they will win more business."
But companies will not return to previous levels of spend on business travel, predicted Douglas.
"Companies want to be effective and efficient - using smarter ways to do the same trip. People won't lose the tightening they've done."
American Express has seen some increase in people travelling. "In some cases the reaction was to stop travelling. Now companies are taking the brakes off. People are travelling again."
Douglas added that he believes small companies will lead the UK out of the recession, making American Express's revamped SME offering vital.
The TMC scrapped its American Express One product and created a revamped SME offering called Axcent earlier this month. American Express is also looking at other markets where it could launch Small Meetings eXpert, which is already on offer in the US.
Small Meetings eXpert is a fully automated solution designed to help companies manage the cost of group meetings, which it sayd is "one of the last areas of unmanaged T&E spending".