CWT reports rise in transactions and traffic

29 Jul 2010 at 10:38 — by Stanley Slaughter in Travel Management | NEWS ITEM

Carlson Wagonlit Travel today (July 29) reported a 13.2% rise in transactions for the first six  months of the year compared with the same period in 2009.

During the six months, the global TMC said it handled a total of 29.4m transactions

Doug Anderson, CWT's president and ceo, said the figures showed business travel was "back on the corporate agenda".

But he warned it had not yet returned to pre-recession levels.

The figures come two days after rival TMC HRG reported a rise in business for the first Q1 of the year with revenue up by 6%.

Carlson said traffic for the first half of 2010 also rose by 16.6% and totalled $12.3bn.

The biggest growth area for traffic was in Latin America where it increased by 48.1% compared with 2009.

There was also a 43.5% increase in Asia Pacific and an 18.2% rise in North America but the EMEA region, including Europe where the economy had been slower in picking up, showed only a 7.7% increase.

CWT said that during the six month, it had picked up new business worth $781m while its client retention rate remained "strong" at 96%.

Anderson said: "Business travel is back on the corporate agenda but if we compare figures for the first six months of this year to the first half of 2008, we can see traffic has not yet returned to pre-recessionary levels.

"Nonetheless, it is clear to us that companies fully understand the role business travel and meetings and events plays in helping them successfully reach their objectives."

CWT said there were also signs that the meetings industry was recovering with companies in Europe organising 30% of their meetings outside their own country, compared with 20% a year ago.

Average spend per participant per day had also risen from €1250 last year to €175 this year.

www.carlsonwagonlit.com    www.hrgworldwide.com

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