Portland, Maine Lodging

Receding security fears and growing profits are leading to a sharp rise in business travel to Portland, Maine. Business executives are racking up hundreds of billions of dollars in travel expenses tor hotels, restaurant meals and airline tickets as an increasingly interdependent global economy demands their presence in locales far from home.

The World Travel & Tourism Council estimates that business travelers from around the world spent billions of dollars on travel last year. US Fortune 1000 companies alone laid out $170 billion tor business travel expenses for their employees last year. Business travel is a necessity, and nothing can beat a face-to-face meeting in Portland, Maine.

Analysts agree that corporate travel budgets began loosening up as the expanding economy and subsiding security concerns persuaded company executives to let their employees take to the skies once again. That meant that executives who bypassed corporate travel regulations and stayed in a five-star Maine hotel instead ot a four-star lodging, tor example, weren't forced to pay the difference out of their own pockets. Backed by a strong economy and solid profits, companies are giving their employees a freer hand when on the road in Portland, Maine.

Analysts agree that business travel is up in markets around Maine, even as hotel rooms and airfares become more expensive. Travel clients, which include professional service firms in sectors from legal to hedge funds, are flying to destinations in Maine. That's even as airfares have headed up by 6% to 10% while room rates are up 5% to 20%-or even higher in geographic regions with booming demand. That demand for hotel space is especially strong in Maine.

Meanwhile, travel fears from terrorism and the spread of infectious diseases have also largely subsided. There has been a global upturn in business travel despite world events. It's a resilient industry. In fact, the surge in Maine business travel has been so strong that booking hotel rooms and airline seats can be a vexing problem for corporate travel managers. It can be difficult to secure a seat. There's the sense that if there were more first-class and business-class seats on the airlines, Maine business travelers would fill them up.

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