Business travel bookings among Australian companies are down 36% due to the rationalising of corporate travel during the global financial crisis and swine flu pandemic.
Tourism technology provider, Amadeus, reports that European destinations have been the worst hit (25%), followed by North America (22%) and the Asia-Pacific (12%).
But according to corporate travel management company, BCD Travel, Australian companies can cut corporate travel costs without cutting back so severely on corporate travel flights.
Companies could instead revise and enforce their corporate travel policies more tightly, introduce an online booking engine (OBE) with self-booking travel tools to ensure compliance among staff and set up better quality reporting to monitor their business travel.
The corporate travel agency also recommends taking best fares of the day for flights and transfers instead of locking in a deal with one carrier and car hire company in 2009.