The number of business trips by German-based companies rose by 5% in 2006 to 157.8m compared to 150.7m in 2005.
But costs also rose with companies spending 47.4bn on travel in 2006 compared to 46.2bn in 2005, a 3% rise.
The Verband Deutsches Reisemanagement (VDR) Business Travel Report Germany 2007 found that a business trip cost companies 148 per day.
This accounted for a continuing drop in the number of trips - about half - which now do not include an overnight stay.
The report, conducted by consulting company BearingPoint, also found that trips were getting shorter.
The number lasting six days or more halved while the average length of staying fell from 2.6 days to 2.2 days.
It meant, proportionately, that more was spent on transport and less on hotels.
The report found that 54% of the travel budget was spent on transport, an increase of 5% on 2005.
There was also a rise in the number of companies using telephone or video conferencing to avoid travel.
65% of companies said they used one or both of these methods to cut travel costs.
But a main theme of the report, the fifth produced by the VDR and BearingPoint, is that companies which use professional travel management save money while those who do not, lose out.
The report said: "Larger companies that draw on the expertise of a travel manager are better able to cushion cost pressure in the business travel field.
"Small and medium companies that ignore travel management, on the other hand, become the pawn of the suppliers and hence put their profitability at risk."
Larger companies with more than 251 employees and where 36% had travel managers saw their volume of travel in 2006 rise by 9% but their costs fall by 5%.
SMEs with fewer than 250 employees and where only 7% had travel management saw both volume and costs rise by 4%.
To see full report in either German or English please click on: www.geschaeftsreiseanalyse.de
* see also BTE Analysis
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