Business-focused travel agents are expecting business travel in 2010 to match or exceed their total bookings for last year, according to Travel Leaders’ annual Travel Trends Survey. The results of the survey of 227 Travel Leaders owners, managers and frontline travel experts also indicates that businesses may be starting to loosen their travel policies and increase their budgets.

“We’re seeing that business travel clients continue to book the same level of hotel accommodations as in the past, but a noteworthy percentage of our business travel experts indicate that clients are starting to fly in business or first class,” said Roger Block, president of Travel Leaders Franchise Group. Specifically, more than a third (35.2%) of Travel Leaders business travel experts said that more than 10% of their airfare bookings are in the business or first class sections of the aircraft.

When asked if business travel clients were trading up on hotel reservations to take advantage of the excellent deals that are available; trading down due to budget constraints; or booking the same hotel category as last year, 71.8% of business travel experts said their clients were booking the same category.

Business travelers continue to make their travel arrangements close to the time of travel. More than 90% of business travel experts said their clients make reservations two weeks or less prior to the travel date for trips within the U.S. Nearly 73 percent said their clients make reservations for international business travel one to three weeks before their travel date.