The leisure market has a great impact on corporate travel, Gordon Wilson, ceo of B2B international markets for Cendant TDS, said.
In a key note speech to the annual conference of the UK and Ireland Institute of Travel Management in Manchester, Mr Wilson said the vast bulk of travel in the world was for leisure and it was this market that drove investment.
The rise of some of the major stakeholders in the travel industry had been driven by their success in the leisure market. The notable example was the low cost carriers.
They had brought about changes which were now part of corporate travel, Mr Wilson told the 350 delegates gathered at the Manchester International Convention Centre.
"They have forced all the traditional airlines to adjust their fares, to simplify their fares and to streamline their booking processes," he said.
"Air fares on short haul have fallen so much that they are no longer the largest part of corporate travel spend."
Traditional airlines had also scrapped Saturday night stay requirements, BA had also introduced one way fares giving travellers more flexibility and many airlines were now offering last minute changes in flights for travellers – all because of low cost carriers.
Mr Wilson predicted that corporate travel would follow the leisure practice of offering "travel packages."
He said travellers were savvy with the internet as they used it to book their holidays and leisure breaks.
They used mega search on site like travelsupermarket.com which provided a series of options and which enabled them to make their decisions on the basis of "informed choice."
There was now a trend towards booking hotels online and pre-paying which was likely to spread to corporate travel.
There was no reason, Mr Wilson said, why a company which made dozens of visits each year to a particular city should not have a "corporate travel package", including air, hotel and car for staff going there.
Keep an eye on these developments he told delegates as these changes will come sooner thane expected.
Another trend Mr Wilson identified was for business travellers to add a leisure break to a corporate trip.
The travellers would ask that they could travel economy instead of business and use the saved money to pay for their partner to accompany them.
They were also spending more time in cities to go sight-seeing after completing their business and pre-booking online to do this.
This is becoming more commonplace, he said, but how many corporate travel policies could cope with these sorts of requests?