BTA Reveals Domestic Recovery But International Travel Slow

Today, the Business Travel Association (BTA) has revealed that the UK lost £4.76 billion in GDP in the fourth week of September, due to the decline of business travel trips following Covid-19*.

The BTA’s latest data shows that in the fourth week of September 2021, domestic business travel bookings were at 53.24% of pre-pandemic levels, the highest since May 2021, however international travel is still struggling at just 21.37% of pre-pandemic volume.

With the Government’s Amber List lifting yesterday, the BTA is hoping to see more recovery, with increased bookings and revenue in the coming weeks.

The fourth week of September shows the strongest week-on-week recovery for both domestic and international figures combined since the Association started recording recovery data in May 2021.

The data shows travel restrictions to:

• Germany have cost UK GDP £837 million this week,
• France have cost UK GDP £771 million this week,
• Republic of Ireland have cost UK GDP £726 million this week,
• USA have cost UK GDP £550 million this week,
• Spain have cost UK GDP £372 million this week.

all from the decline of business travel trips.

Overall, the BTA’s latest Business Travel Tracker, with data from Travelogix, shows that in the fourth week of September 2021, international business travel trips from the UK dropped by 78.62% compared to the same week in 2019, and there were 296,032 fewer international and domestic business travel trips – a reduction of 55.76%.

The eighteenth edition of the BTA’s Business Travel Tracker can be found here.