These are the findings from YouGov Siraj’s Travel Tracker survey, a research tool which tracks travel trends quarterly.
330 leisure and 255 business travellers from the UAE responded to the survey during January 2010.
The latest survey shows 46% of respondents expect their business travel to increase (15% indicated it will increase a lot), marking a rise by 22 points compared with figures of the same period in 2009 (24%). A smaller proportion 16% expects their travel to drop over the next 12 months.
“It has been a lean year for executives used to travelling for business around the world on company expenses, but business travel looks set to take off again. As people are feeling more positive about the economy and are increasingly focused on growth, they are now planning to travel on business more,” says Jane Wilson, Director, Travel and Tourism Research at YouGovSiraj.
Looking at actual flying figures compared to a year ago, people are still flying economy more and business class less. First or business class travel in January 2009 was 7 points higher than last month, In Jan 2010, 24% said they flew first or business, compared to 31% in January 2009. Economy travel (53%) is up by 4 points, and premium economy (23%) increased by 3 points, compared to the same period of last year.
“The financial crisis has forced companies to look more at what these business trips can achieve. And the optimistic expectations show that many firms continue to manage their costs on travel related activities that add to the organization’s value and long-term revenue,” concludes Mrs. Wilson.
Looking at future expectations, the study clearly shows the majority of the business travelers (55%) plan to fly more premium economy in the next year, marking a significant increase of 46 points in comparison to last year’s figure (9%). Expectations to fly business & first class rose by 12 points in January 2010, in comparison to 5% January 2009. And 10% feel they will fly more economy this year, as opposed to 21% last year.
While almost a quarter (22%) of business travellers are unsure how their budgets will change, more than a third (34%) are optimistic about higher budgets in the near future.
