Business Travel Growth Disappointing

The Global Business Travel Association has released the results of its recent research showing that although business travel is not growing as fast as it was hoped for, even though the economy has started to show signs of recovery. Growth rates in Europe and the USA were rather disappointing.

Research also showed that not all businesses would pay ancillary costs back. Businesses were most likely to pay for baggage fees and itinerary charges. Only some businesses paid for meals and wi-fi on the plane. Very few businesses would pay for preferred seating, in-flight entertainment or priority boarding.

The overall research findings were that growth is slower in business travel than had been hoped for. The fact that there was a recovery in this area first made people think that it would continue to grow quickly. The Global Business Travel Association said that they felt a managed travel plan was something of great importance to companies and this could help companies to minimise travel costs. The positive thing is that at least it is continuing to grow and so it is likely that the market will not see a dip again for a while.

The web site for the The Global Business Travel Association is http://www.gbta.org/Pages/default.aspx