Travel Freezes, Cutbacks Rapidly Spread in Germany

German businesses have scaled back travel drastically in the past three months, according to the latest figures from VDR, the country's association for travel managers. A poll of 199 VDR members taken last week revealed that 32 percent have banned non-essential travel in response to the global financial crisis. In a similar survey taken in October 2008, the figure was 14 percent.

Only 22 percent of respondents said their travel patterns have been unaffected by the crisis. The equivalent figure in the October survey was 49 percent. Two percent of VDR members said their travel volumes are growing.

The German government yesterday forecast that its economy will shrink by 2.25 percent in 2009, the country's worst performance since World War II. Exports are expected to plummet 8.9 percent. VDR president Michael Kirnberger warned that cutting travel would harm economic prospects even more.

"Business travel is an essential part of the success of modern commerce, for instance for negotiating and setting up new contracts," he said. "Restricting contact with clients is potentially disastrous. It is the equivalent of the credit squeeze in the banking sector. Suppliers and government have to act now to halt this trend."

Kirnberger called on airlines to drop any remaining fuel surcharges and governments to ease their taxation on travel.