Only about 5 percent of 429 Travel Leaders Group owners, managers and travel agents operating in the corporate travel space expect travel volumes among business clients to fall this year from 2014 levels, with nearly 46 percent anticipating booking levels to rise. The number of respondents forecasting higher booking volumes is up 7 percentage points from a similar survey fielded by Travel Leaders in the prior year and mirrors broad optimism among the group's constituents.
Announced Monday, the findings among Travel Leaders Group’s "business-focused travel agents" were fielded as part of a broader survey, conducted between Nov. 11, 2014 and Dec. 8, 2014, that garnered responses from 1,226 U.S.-based travel agency owners, managers and frontline travel agents from multiple Travel Leaders-owned corporate and retail entities.
That broader subset of respondents exuded optimism about 2015. Based on forward bookings, 53.2 percent of all respondents expected clients—comprising business and leisure—to spend more per trip than in 2014. Around 43 percent of the respondents expected spending levels per trip to remain flat year over year.
Asked to compare "overall 2015 bookings so far to your 2014 bookings at this time last year," 48 percent of all respondents noted booking volumes were higher and about 37 percent indicated bookings were "about even."
Nearly 84 percent of the 1,226 respondents characterized their outlook on business in 2015 to be "optimistic."