The Business Travel Association has revealed the strongest recovery for business travel since March 2020 compared to the same week in 2019.
Data from Travelogix shows that traveller confidence has returned, evidenced in a 403.13% increase in new business travel bookings versus the same week in 2021.
Week-on-week domestic business travel has seen particularly high levels of recovery, with a 67.79% increase in departures compared to the same week in 2019.
Clive Wratten, CEO of the BTA said: “It’s encouraging to see business traveller confidence returning once and for all as we begin to live with Covid. Now we must focus on how we sustainably move forward in a post-Covid world.”
Data shows that despite a 291.54% increase in departures versus the same week in 2021, there has been an overall £2.72bn GDP loss associated to domestic and international travel compared to the same week in 2019.
The data shows that in the fourth week of February, the lower levels of business travel to:
Republic of Ireland have cost UK GDP £719 million
Germany have cost UK GDP £493 million
France have cost UK GDP £338 million
USA have cost UK GDP £210 million, and
Spain have cost UK GDP £164 million this week.
The data also shows a noticeable reduction in active cases of Covid per 100k of population in 10 of the 11 countries followed by the Business Travel Tracker.