Domestic and international business travel grew by 10% in the last week of March compared to the previous week, latest data shows.
This brought the volume back to 62.93% of pre-pandemic 2019 levels, according to research for the Business Travel Association.
Data provided by analytics firm Travelogix shows that business travel recovery is underway, the BTA said,
Chief executive Clive Wratten added: “We are delighted to see a further increase to business travel levels.
“We look forward to working with TMCs to make recovery as smooth as possible.”
However, the data also reveals a £2.20 billion GDP loss associated to domestic and international travel compared to the same week in 2019 due to a reduced number of business travel trips.
There was also a “noticeable reduction” in active cases of Covid per 100,000 of population in seven of the ten countries followed by the BTA’s Business Travel Tracker.
The data shows that in the fourth week of March, the lower levels of business travel to:
- Ireland have cost UK GDP £472 million
- Germany have cost UK GDP £433 million
- US have cost UK GDP £198 million
- Singapore have cost UK GDP £157 million, and
- France have cost UK GDP £132 million.