19 October 2006

Businesses are spending more on travel but are not relaxing their grip on travel policy, according to a survey of buyers. The snap poll, taken last month at the annual client conference of travel management company HRG, found 38 per cent of buyers expect their final travel bill for 2006 to be 10 per cent higher than 2005, while another 37 per cent expect the rise to be greater than 10 per cent.

In previous economic cycles, increased volumes of travel have been accompanied by more generous policies, such as allowing employees to sit in business class instead of economy. However, 63 per cent of those polled said their policy will remain the same over the next six months and 34 per cent said it will tighten. "One thing we have seen in this upturn is that clients are yet to relax travel policy," HRG chief executive David Radcliffe told the conference.

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