Corporate travel budgets grew on average 5.5 percent this
year and are poised to grow an additional 4.45 percent in 2011, thanks to a
combination of increased corporate travel demand, higher supplier pricing and
growing airline fees, a National Business Travel Association Foundation survey
of 170 North American corporate travel buyers released on Thursday found.
According to respondents, the average corporate travel
budget next year is expected to grow to $98 million, as 38 percent of respondents
anticipate more travelers and 51 percent expect their company to log more
trips. Sixty-seven percent of respondents expect higher supplier pricing, and
64 percent point to airline fees as drivers of that growth.
According to the survey, 72 percent of respondents agreed
that the business travel industry has improved from a year ago, with 63 percent
sharing that optimistic outlook for the next 12 months.
“Business travel is coming back,” NBTA president and CEO
Craig Banikowski said. “There is no doubt about it. Given the difficulties the
industry faced during this last recession, corporate travel buyers welcome the
improved conditions, and companies are already getting their teams back on the
road to help build business.”
The improvement in the market comes at a cost to travel
buyers as suppliers increasingly wield pricing power. “Many travel buyers are
already experiencing more strict market thresholds and expect this to result in
smaller corporate discounts going forward,” Banikowski said, noting that the
buyer’s market “may slowly be turning around.”
According to the survey, buyers anticipate domestic prices,
not including those for domestic car rentals, to rise between 3 percent and 4.5
percent.