Most travel buyers expect
their companies to increase travel levels in the second half of 2010, according
to a survey of European and North American travel managers released on Friday
by the German-based payment services provider AirPlus International.
The survey of 41 travel
managers found 59 percent believe their organization's travel volume will be
higher than in the same period in 2010. The most popular range of projected
volume growth is 5 to 10 percent, with 23 percent of buyers, followed by 10 to 15
percent, with 13 percent of buyers. One-quarter of responding buyers believe
their travel levels will stay the same, and 12 percent tip it to fall, with the
rest not knowing.
Of those who believe their
volume of travel will rise, on average they think one-third of the growth will
be for sales purposes and another third for new business development. Other
categories, such as internal meetings at 8 percent, look set for far lower
growth. It implies that a pronounced switch during the recession to
technological alternatives for internal meetings, such as videoconferencing,
could prove permanent, although the sample is far too small to reach definite
conclusions.
AirPlus saw additional
significance in the high proportion of anticipated additional travel for new
business development. "While sales travel is a logical area for business
travel growth in a recovering economy, the surge in new business development
may indicate a driving effort to explore opportunities in emerging economies in
Latin America and Asia, where economic recovery has been swift," the
company said.
The heavy bias toward
travel for new revenue creation may also explain why 30 percent of respondents
said the heaviest pressure they feel from senior management at present is to
demonstrate the return on investment in travel. However, an even higher
proportion, 50 percent, said the greatest pressure they are under is to find
additional savings.