Domestic trips are leading the recovery of business travel, though international travel is still struggling, according to the latest data from the Business Travel Association (BTA).
The BTA’s latest data from Travelogix revealed that domestic business travel bookings were at 53.24 per cent of pre-pandemic levels in the fourth week of September, the highest figure since May 2021. International travel, however, is at just 21.37 per cent of pre-pandemic volume.
The data also showed that there were 296,032 fewer international and domestic business travel trips in this period compared to the same week in 2019 – a reduction of 55.76 per cent.
Nonetheless, the fourth week of September showed the strongest week-on-week recovery for both domestic and international figures combined since the BTA began recording data in May 2021.
The BTA also revealed that travel restrictions to
- Germany have cost UK GDP £837 million this week
- France have cost UK GDP £771 million this week
- Republic of Ireland have cost UK GDP £726 million this week
- USA have cost UK GDP £550 million this week
- Spain have cost UK GDP £372 million this week
This is a result of the decline of business travel trips.
The BTA hopes to see further recovery in the coming weeks due to the UK government’s scrapping of the traffic light system earlier this week.
