Small and medium-sized firms are leading a post-pandemic recovery in business travel, according to Travel Counsellors.
The biggest growth is being seen in companies with an annual travel spend under £500,000.
A survey of the group’s corporate clients showed that most plan to travel between now and March 2022.
Nearly half plan to trips during the remainder of this year and almost 30% between January and March 2022.
Almost all (95%) agreed with the statement that business travel is important to meet company objectives and that attracting new business had been the area most impacted by travel restrictions.
The lifting of the US travel ban from next month means that the country now tops the list of top destinations for business travel over UK domestic trips and the UAE.
Overall corporate bookings are 40% up in the past four weeks and Travel Counsellors expects the trend to continue as September alone has seen more than 800 different clients making bookings.
Travel Counsellors recorded more than £1 million-worth of business travel bookings in the last eight consecutive weeks, a doubling from this time last year.
The highest number of travellers are from the financial services sector, accounting for nearly 45%.
Professional services and consultancy rates the next highest at almost 18% – with engineering, manufacturing, oil and gas, education and media and entertainment all accounting for 5% of bookings per sector.
The risk of Covid-19 infection was the number one concern when booking business travel earlier in the year.
The most important consideration for business travellers now is to have an expert on hand 24/7 to make and manage bookings as well as cost.
Travel Counsellors corporate managing director Kieran Hartwell said: “It has been interesting to see that our trends are reflected industry-wide.
“SMEs are the first sector to travel, it is so important for these businesses to establish personal contact with clients and new business prospects and we enable to do this in the safest possible way.
“We are delighted at how the business is now picking up and fully expect this trend to continue as the US opens its borders to UK travellers.”