IN an Airclaims/BTN Asia-Pacific 2004 survey of 469 respondents from the corporate travel sector (agents, suppliers and corporate travel managers) in 19 countries across Asia-Pacific, 17 per cent of travel managers see growth in flights and budgets of 10 to 20 per cent in 2005, and 50 per cent see growth of one to 10 per cent.

Virtually no respondents see a decrease. Part of the reason is that more companies anticipate more longer-haul trips.

Asia-Pacific is expected to benefit from this growth. All respondent groups believe the region will lead in the next five years in travel and tourism. China and Japan, with their current GDP growth, are also back on track. Countries that receive a lot of outsourced jobs from the west, such as India, Indonesia and the Philippines, are also expected to gain from business traffic as companies follow up on their interests. Singapore and Hong Kong will benefit, but to a much less degree.

UK-based Airclaims chief economist, Mr Peter Morris, said: "Last year there was a lot of wait-and-see because of SARS and the Iraq war, but with the current state of the economy, people are thinking about re-establishing business links and contacts again."

Companies expected to benefit from the growth include credit card companies, banks, information technology suppliers and GDSs, which are seen to generate the most profits over the next five years. Airlines are expected to generate the least. Hotels are seen to generate high volumes of growth but not with the same level of profits as the banks and credit card companies.

Mr Morris said this disparity was due largely to competition among suppliers. "The ultimate winner is the customer because everybody is competing to provide for them. The result is prices are being driven down, the quality of services is improving, and the number of alternatives available expanded.

"It is sad hotels and airlines are not expected to generate much profitability from the growth in corporate travel demand but I think as load factors go up, yield will also eventually start to increase.

"Along the way particular businesses will do better than others. To benefit from the growth, travel agents for example, have to add more value to their services so they can charge for them and tailor their offerings to the needs of the travellers.

"One element the travel industry has to be aware of is to become technology-savvy. But the industry has to be streetwise enough not to invest in every gimmick but to look at the value of these services so they don't offer something superficially attractive, but genuine in value."

Travel managers rated the need for reliable and high-speed Internet connections above the need for business-class service or lounges. Women-only floors were ranked as the least valuable business traveller service.

The entry of low cost carriers (LCCs) into Asia-Pacific is expected to have little impact on corporate travel in the first few years as they lose out to legacy carriers in terms of their network and services.

Mr Morris said: "Corporate travel is driven by frequency and convenience so the mainline carriers won't lose out to LCCs."

"But budget carriers may generate additional travel for small and medium-size companies which may decide to make more speculative trips that they might otherwise not have done because it was too expensive."

- Full findings in next issue of BTN Asia-Pacific