By Nisha Ramchandani

CORPORATE travel in Asia is likely to rebound with a growth of 10-15 per cent this year in markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong, although companies may be reluctant to lift the cost-saving travel policies implemented during the recession.

'About 70 per cent of organisations have introduced policies for all aspects of travel and there has been reductions in trips by 15-20 per cent as well as a reduction in travel spend by 25-40 per cent in the past year,' said travel facilitator Abacus International's vice-president for marketing, Brett Henry.

While travel budgets are likely to rise in line with the recovering economy, companies may not do away with the revised travel policies seeing as they improve the bottom line.

According to Abacus, over 80 per cent of travel buyers expect majority of the controls put in place, to remain post-recession.

Commenting on the future outlook for corporate travel, Mr Henry added: 'We are expecting to see a gradual 10-15 per cent growth in corporate travel in 2010, especially in traditional corporate travel markets like Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.'

Abacus, which saw a one per cent decline in overall bookings last year, is expecting a 3-5 per cent growth year-on-year for the first half of 2010.

In a survey which polled 200 travel agents across the region, South-east Asia emerged tops as the most popular region among travellers, followed by Europe and the US.

Meanwhile, its online travel bookings registered growth of over 15 per cent in 2009 despite the economic downturn.

Abacus is expecting 20 per cent growth this year across the region as online booking becomes more prevalent in emerging markets such as Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

And the overall pick-up in travel is also translating to stronger bookings for the hotel sector.

For the month of January, Abacus saw hotel bookings soar 90 per cent year on year.

'Specifically, we are seeing the rise in bookings from markets such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore,' said Abacus president and CEO Robert Bailey.

This article was first published in The Business Times.