Rail bookings through TMCs rose sharply for the three months to end of June, according to GTMCs second quarterly review.
The organisation’s review showed rail transactions among GTMC members grew 26.9 per cent compared to the same period in 2015. There was also double digit growth for hotel and air bookings.
The study revealed that members’ aggregated transactions have increased by 12 per cent year-on-year.
Despite transaction numbers showing a “healthy increase”, average ticket prices are down slightly. Contributing to this is strong short haul travel, above average purchasing of tickets with restrictions and long haul economy travel.
GTMC CEO Paul Wait said despite the increase in bookings confidence levels in the economy are still lower than last year.
“There are mixed messages within this quarterly review,” said Wait. “Growth of the UK economy is higher than in any other G7 country (except for possibly Japan); inflation is low and the strength of the pound against the euro and dollar is making exports challenging.
“However, the double digit per cent increase in air, rail and hotel shows clearly that business travel is on the up. As businesses realise the opportunities that come with investing in travel rather than playing it safe, past trends show us that the low transaction values will be the next in line to improve.”
Wait added that preliminary trade figures show that UK investment abroad is increasing and that should “precipitate” more business travel.
The GTMC’s membership accounts for more than 80 per cent of UK expenditure on managed travel.