Business travel will pick up speed during 2014, in line with the expected, and ongoing, global recovery, said Nicolette Kruger, country manager at NFS Technology, the developer and supplier of a range of software for the hospitality and leisure industry, including the Rendezvous software solution – one of the leading software solutions for the conference and events industry.

“ ‘Trip growth’ was on the slow side in 2013due to business uncertainty, but ,with positive signals coming from the United States in terms of economic growth, businesses are starting to have a more positive view going forward. Some market analysts are saying that there could be a 3% GDP growth in the United States - with the tapering of quantative easing being handled well by the Federal Reserve Bank.”

Overall price increases in the air, hotels and car sectors should be in line with inflation, according to travel consultancy Advito.
Advito publishes its Annual Industry Forecast to give travel and procurement managers a benchmark range of projected prices so that they can prepare supplier negotiations and budgeting.

Kruger said the forecast includes supply, demand and pricing trends for air, hotel, meetings, car rental and rail for all major regions in the world.

“Findings in the hotel category reflect that hotel companies will look to raise corporate rates by 4-6%, but will arguably only receive half of that in reality.
“Meetings demand remains strong and is growing at a faster rate than overall travel,” said Kruger. “NFS Technology,” she said, “is gearing up for bullish growth. With the positive trends we have witnessed with our clients during 2013 – and with the market information coming from companies like Advito -we expect double digit growth for 2014 at NFS.”

Advito expects moderate meeting price increases in 2014.