Growth in UK corporate travel transactions shows no signs of slowing according to latest figures from the Guild of Travel Management Companies.
GTMC figures for the three months to September show a 4% increase in business over the same period last year, the same as in the second quarter of the year. Transactions over the 12 months to September were up 6% year on year.
Members of the GTMC recorded increases across all sectors – air, rail, hotels and car hire – both in the quarter and for the last 12 months. The GTMC reported a 6% rise in air travel transactions in the third quarter and a 7% rise year on year.
Hotel bookings were up just 2% in the quarter, but remain 8% up over the 12 months. Growth in rail bookings slowed after showing the sharpest rate of increase in any sector in 2009-10, but transactions were still up 3% in the quarter and by the same over the last 12 months despite a 2% decline in April-June.
At the same time corporate car hire is booming – albeit from a much lower base than other sectors – with 16% growth during the last quarter and 9% year on year.
GTMC chief executive Anne Godfrey said: “All modes of travel are showing growth although the increases vary. Rail has recovered from the dip in the second quarter. However, the most impressive increase is in car hire.”
Godfrey suggested corporate travellers may be moving back to the roads “at the expense of rail” following cuts in public-sector travel budgets.
The figures confirm the corporate market is in a much stronger state than the leisure sector, where outbound travel has at best been flat year on year this summer. Outbound holiday trips from the UK were 6% down year on year in July and just 1% up on 2010 for the year to date.