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Business agents report soar in bookings
Members of the Guild of Travel Management Companies saw bookings rise by 10% in the first six months of the year as trading continued to improve in the corporate sector.
GTMC chief executive Philip Carlisle said the figures, outlined in its Quarterly Transaction Survey, were a “cause for celebration.”
Between January and June, the Guild’s 33 members reported 6.43 million transactions, up from 5.73 million on the same period last year.
Airline bookings increased from 2.94 million to almost 3.17 million while hotel bookings soared from just over one million to 1.36 million. Rail bookings rose by 100,000.
On a quarterly basis, air bookings in the second quarter of 2005 increased 9% over the same period last year which followed a 6% increase in the first quarter over 2004.
Hotel bookings between April and June rose by almost a third on last year, an even better performance than the first quarter where transactions increased by 22%.
“While these figures are great news for our members, they are truly fantastic for the UK economy as a whole,” said Carlisle. “Business travel is an established barometer of commercial activity and growth of this magnitude can only be a cause for celebration.”
He added the figures suggested business travellers were making better use of their trip by visiting multiple clients.
“Not only is the volume of travel picking up, productivity is on the increase as well,” said Carlisle.
Report by Steve Jones
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