Business travel sluggish but hopeful
Robert JonesThe business travel segment will a pick up in the next year, towards the latter part of 2010, an industry expert has predicted.
Chairman of the National Business Travel Association Kevin Maguire recently said that travel management companies may resume growing at the end of 2010 or in early 2011.
He has also warned that the global recession has created a paradigm shift in travel habits which means things will not be as they were before the crisis.
A guest speaker at the Advantage Conference at Heathrow, Maguire said that the business travel sector is slower to recuperate than we think, but we’ve seen the bottom of the barrel. The situation is stabilizing.
He also said that travel is an easy target. A downgrade in travel can take some of the bite out of downsizing.
Maguire claimed that the world was already starting to experience a different kind of business class travel, with some airlines restructuring their cabins.
Important airlines, such as Lufthansa, are replacing business class seats with more economy seats.
Another sign of changing business travel are requests at Boeing to increase the size of premium economy class on its new airplanes, including on its new 787 Dreamliner, again lowering business seating.
The recession appears to have had an impact on the way consumers look at the environment. The ‘wasting’ years are maybe over, with green travel becoming an issue.
Banikowski added that, althought low on the list of priorities at the moment, ‘green’ concerns will greatly impact the way people travel in the future.
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Filed under Business & Finance, Health & Environment, Travel News, World News