Nearly six months after September 11, South East businesses were still reluctant to travel abroad on business. Eighty-four per cent of those questioned in a BT Conferencing survey blamed world events for limiting their amount of business travel.

The survey revealed that a quarter of the largest companies had introduced a travel policy following September 11 to reduce the amount of travel undertaken by their staff. More than a third were urging employees to use conferencing as an alternative to travelling, which has prompted a 45 per cent upsurge in demand for conferencing facilities.

Where it was necessary to meet in person, nearly 40 per cent of companies required employees to use budget airlines.