Corporate Travel Expenditures On the Rise

July 27, 2004

Corporate Travel Expenditures On the Rise
July 27, 2004 – Companies are spending more on business travel this year and it is expected that trend will continue, according to a National Business Travel Association survey.

The mid-year survey polled corporate travel managers and more than 60 percent of them said their firms’ travel-related spending is up over 2003. Eighteen percent indicated their business travel expenses were about the same and the remaining 22 percent said their spending had declined so far in 2004.

This marked the first time in three years that business travel has increased over the previous year by the halfway point. The NTBA’s online survey also noted that one-third of the 265 respondents said they foresee the travel industry’s numbers returning the levels of those reached in 2000.

Of the travel managers who are spending more, 77 percent say their spending will end up being 10 percent or less. Seventy percent indicated that, by year’s end, their companies will book more hotel rooms than they did in 2003.