Has the business travel market come out of the doldrums? That's what the figures taken from the study published on 1 September suggest.er July by HRG. The UK-based business travel agency focused on trends in its domestic market for business travel by air. The growth in domestic business travel recorded in 1er The upturn in business travel to the UK in the first quarter of 2013 (+4.3%) is even reflected on a global scale (+3.2%), while business travel to India is pulling up the figures, with double-digit growth (+11.1%) over the year. More surprisingly, China and, even more so, Brazil are marking time: the number of transactions to these two major markets fell by 2.3% and 6.1% respectively. Another finding of the HRG study is that business travellers are abandoning the front of aircraft in favour of economy class. The business travel agency notes a significant drop in business class bookings (-14.8%), while economy class is up slightly (+0.5%). Stewart Harvey, Commercial Director of the HRG Group, therefore describes "an industry in slow but steady recovery", adding: "Despite this improvement, our customers continue to focus on costs and on increasing economy class, particularly on short-haul routes. We are also seeing the return of rail transport as a real alternative to air transport". And he warns: "We are now facing the significant expansion of smaller, less established destinations such as Colombia and Ghana. These countries are poised for massive growth over the next decade as international routes open up.
