Nearly six months after September 11th, businesses in the South East are still reluctant to travel abroad on business.

Eighty-four per cent of those questioned in a BT Conferencing survey blamed recent world events for limiting their amount of business travel. The survey revealed that a quarter of the largest companies had introduced a new travel policy following September 11th to reduce the amount of travel undertaken by their employees.

More than a third were urging employees to use conferencing as an alternative to travelling and, where it was necessary to meet in person, nearly 40 per cent of companies required employees to use budget airlines.

Indeed the survey found that nearly half of the new travel policies introduced in recent months, prohibited first class or business travel.

David Sales, director of BT Conferencing, said: "Whilst it was to be expected that immediately following the tragic events of September 11th people were going to avoid travelling wherever possible, it is clear that it has forced companies to re-evaluate the necessity and cost benefit of expensive business trips in the longer-term."

The new policies had prompted a 45 per cent upsurge in demand for conferencing facilities.