Research from Barclaycard Business shows that more than three-quarters of business travel is now booked using a company credit or charge card, while internet use has also risen at the expense of the travel agent.
Almost half (47%) of all travel is booked using external websites, which is 10% up compared to 2005, while the use of travel agents is slightly down from 31% in 2005 to 28% last year.
The research comes from the 11th Barclaycard Business Travel Survey, that asked more than 4,000 UK business travellers about their travel habits and suggest that drives to reduce company fraud and internal administration costs appear to be working. Only 5% of business travellers now use a personal credit or debit card.
Some companies still have a way to go however. Some 41% said that their companies did not have a travel policy, while a further 7% said that they did know whether there was one or not.
”It is clear that attempts by companies to monitor travel more closely, reduce fraud and streamline internal administration costs have resulted in a large proportion of business travellers using company cards to purchase travel and accommodation,” said Barclaycard Business director of commercial cards, Denise Leleux.
”Not only do company cards make travel purchasing more efficient and transparent, they also provide the business traveller with flexibility and ensure they are not personally out of pocket when travelling.”
Travel costs account for a significant proportion of budget with 39% spending up to ”1,000 ($2,000) per month on travel, almost 19% spending up to ”5,000 and 5% spending between ”5,000 and ”50,000 per month.
The findings also reveal that just 9% of business travellers used external companies to book trips, while 55% now book their own travel. Some 29% delegated this task to administration staff.