NBTA Survey Shows Rebound

A survey of 200 corporate travel buyers by the Alexandria, Va.-based National Business Travel Association completed March 13 showed that corporate travel is recovering, although buyers believe it may be a year before volume returns to 2000 levels, according to results released yesterday.

Demand for business travel has increased by up to or more than 10 percent since January of this year, according to 65 percent of respondents. Consumer product companies and computer and electronics companies reported the most significant increases in travel demand, according to the survey, and the Midwestern states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin, along with the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, were the fastest recovering domestic destinations.

Almost 72 percent of travel managers said the economy must stabilize before travel expenditures will return to their previous levels, the survey indicated. As for when a full recovery might occur, 22 percent of travel managers expect travel to return to previous levels within the next six months, 25 percent expect recovery in six to nine months and 35 percent expect it will take nine to 12 months.