Business travel is on the increase, according to the latest survey of 4000 travelling executives by Barclaycard.
The 11th annual Barclaycard Business Travel Survey found that 44% of people travelled more for business in 2006 compared to 2005, and 34% travelled the same amount.
The research also found that people still believe that travel is an essential part of their business, with 79% believing their business had benefited from business travel.
Only 3% said that they could have achieved the same success for their company without travelling.
Of the 44% of business travellers who were travelling more during 2006, almost half cited business expansion either in the UK or abroad as the reason.
Barclaycard Business director of commercial cards Denise Leleux said: “It is clear that despite modern communications such as video conferencing people still believe that travel is an essential part of business.”
The survey also found that 21% of business people travelled more than 500 miles per week with 16% traveling up to a 1000 miles.
The majority (73% ) said most of their trips were within the UK.
Travel to the Middle East rose from 2% in 2005 to 6% in 2006, while travel to Africa rose from 3% to 5%.
“It would seem that even though business expansion is the primary driving force behind business travel, meetings are still concentrated within the UK and Western Europe,” said Leleux.
The survey questioned 4000 CEOs, company directors, managers and executives.
Further findings will be released over the next few weeks.
By Bev Fearis
