Many businesses are looking to cut their travel costs by locating conferences to destinations within New Zealand. Photo / Doug Sherring

Many businesses are looking to cut their travel costs by locating conferences to destinations within New Zealand. Photo / Doug Sherring

Business travellers are often spoiled for choice, but many are now having to make some tough decisions about how they spend their time on the road and in the air.

As companies tighten their belts, travel budgets are often hit first. Senior employees are expected to maintain client relationships and monitor off-site projects without leaving the office, the city or the country.

At the same time, firms are being encouraged to become more global in their focus. Business travel could be booming; instead, firms are canning trips that do not directly generate sales.

New Zealand is now hosting fewer business travel visitors from Asian countries, but the important Australian and United States markets are intact, for now at least.

Domestic business travel is also secure; in fact, travel agents report that corporate bookings are higher than they were at the start of last year.

Transtasman travel is in good shape, too, with airfares to Australia a fifth cheaper than they were a year ago. These are all promising signs, but they could change quickly, according to Ministry of Tourism general manager Ray Salter.

"In December, business travel from the United Kingdom to New Zealand was down by 44 per cent compared to the previous year. But in the same month, arrivals from the United States were down by only 5 per cent.

"We know that the United States was hit hardest by the economic crisis, so we expected to see more negative growth in that market. We do know that, overall, business travel has fallen by 5 per cent in the past year."

Previous surveys have shown that seasoned Kiwi business travellers have no problem securing company approval for luxury travel. They are likely to forego those trimmings in the coming months.

Exotic destinations for corporate events are being swapped for traditional locations such as Auckland and Sydney, which do not raise eyebrows in the finance department.

Unlike leisure-seekers, corporate travellers do not have time to scout for cheap promotional fares online.

Travel agents are scrambling to find new ways to keep those business travellers on their books. As a result, Flight Centre is opening a retail chain dedicated to the corporate market.

But it seems the real winners are budget airlines, which have been buoyed by an increase in business travel. In response, many mainstream airlines have slashed their fares to lure back high-paying customers.