There will be no drop in business travel this year, the majority of UK travel managers believe.
Figures from the AirPlus 2013 International Travel Management Study show that 64% of respondents think the number of trips would stay the same while 28% thought that travel would increase.
Only 7% predict that the volume of business travel will fall in 2013.
At the same time, 45% of the survey sample believed that travel spend would remain the same, while 38% said that they thought it would rise. However, 15% of those polled forecast a dip in business travel spend.
The overall volume and spend predictions include some stark variations among different categories of travel spend.
UK travel managers polled were more likely to believe that the cost of air travel rather than the volume of flights would increase. The poll found that 41% believed that air travel costs would rise in comparison with only 43% who believed it would stay the same.
But only 31% thought the number of business flights would increase in contrast to 53% who believed they would stay the same. The 31% expecting a rise in flights represents a fall of 16% from last year.
44% of the travel managers polled thought the cost of accommodation for business travellers would rise while 40% thought the cost would stay constant.
36% believed that the number of hotel room nights would increase while 52% thought they would stay the same.
The 36% of travel managers that believe the number of hotel room nights will increase in 2013 is a jump of 16% from the increase in 2012 predicted by managers in 2011.
UK travel managers are expecting a greater increase in their accommodation bills than that for flights.
The belief that more hotel rooms could be being booked despite fewer flights could be explained by a trend towards longer business trips, according to Air Plus.
The picture for car rental, train and meeting costs is much more consistent and restrained.
The majority of UK travel managers believe that car rental, train and meeting volumes (66%, 68% and 66% respectively) and costs (62%, 64% and 67% respectively) will all remain constant in 2013.
AirPlus UK managing director Yael Klein said: “I believe that a stable business travel market should definitely been seen in a positive light.
“Many other large European business travel markets, including France, Italy and Spain, predict spending to go down, albeit marginally.
“As business travel spend seems to point quite consistently to the state of the national economy, we would hope this is therefore a good indication for the outlook of our economy over the next 12 months.”