Rail bookings are up by 16% while hotel bookings are up by 18% over the same three months in 2007. Air travel transactions rose by 14% on 2007, although transactions across the whole of 2008 are up by just 2%. Total transactions in the third quarter of 2008 were up by 8% year on year.

In contrast, car rental bookings and other business transactions, such as travel insurance procurement, passport and visa ordering, airport taxi bookings and chauffer drive, were both down on the same quarter in 2007 by 3%.

Commenting on the third quarter’s results, Philip Carlisle, GTMC chief executive said: “The results are remarkable when one considers that air travel is up 2% over last year and hotel and rail transactions are positively booming. Clearly British business still sees business travel as a vital aspect of trading during a downturn.”

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