The Guild of Travel Management Companies, a UK-based professional association of travel companies, has announced that business travel spending in the UK is increasing at a faster pace than the UK economy.
In its second quarterly transaction survey for 2012, the association has reported that air travel, rail travel, car hire and ancillary services have registered growth in comparison with the same quarter last year, while hotels have maintained a similar level of activity to that in the same period last year.
John Williams, the general manager at GTMC, said, ‘The static figure for hotel transactions may reflect anomalies due to the Olympics. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third quarter.’
While Rail sales in the second quarter of 2012 are lower than those in the 2012 first quarter, at 14 percent growth rate, they still remain better than those reported in the 2011 second quarter. Car hire has also reported a 6 percent increase in the 2012 second quarter compared to the same period last year.
Air travel is up by 2 percent in the second quarter of 2012, compared to same quarter in 2011, while sales of other services, including consultancy services, ferries, visas, currency exchange and meet and greet, are showing a 10 percent increase in the 2012 second quarter, compared to the 2011 second quarter.
The GTMC chief executive officer, Ann Godfrey, said, ‘Once again the business conducted by GTMC members seems to be slightly better than that being reported elsewhere. Whilst not spectacular these figures show that, with caution, things are better than may have been expected.’
