By factoring in some downtime you can ensure that it’s not all work and waiting in airport lounges. If you enjoy sightseeing take time to arrange a walking tour. If you love music seek out the local concerts that are performing during your stay. If you enjoy golf you are bound to find a decent course in the vicinity of the hotel.

You can make your meal a highlight rather than a drab evening. Seek out a high dining restaurant and indulge in a gourmet meal. You can enjoy dinner without distraction and if you feel a little conspicuous take a book to read while you eat.

Take some time to relax outside a café or wandering through a park or even catch a film. Just make sure you schedule some time to unwind.

The easiest way is to learn some Pilates routines that you can do on the move. You can find Pilates exercises on the internet and simply follow the exercises on your laptop or if you have your own preferred routine write them down. You could also take a DVD with you as most hotels geared up for business travellers have a DVD player in the room.

However finding a class in the city of your stay is the most enjoyable way of keeping up with your Pilates regime. You’ll find Pilates classes in most business cities across the world and with a little persistence you should be able to find a class. In fact many hotels offer classes as part of their leisure facilities. Visiting different classes will breathe new life into your understanding of Pilates and give you a welcome break from the treadmill of business travel.

Air Miles can be earned with every flight, and then exchanged for free flights to destinations around the world. You can also earn Air Miles when you stay at hotels by using your credit card, when you fill your car up with petrol and when you buy your shopping each week.

As the recession is eating into everyone’s profits, it becomes even more necessary to save money wherever possible, and by collecting Air Miles you’re able to do that. If you are a regular business traveller and you’re not earning Air Miles, you’re missing out on potentially hundreds of pounds worth of free business flights each year.

Can you or your business afford to do that?

Sure, you’ll have a laptop with you, and you’ve probably got one that’s Wi-Fi enabled, but unless you have a Wi-Fi signal near you that’s not much use to you. Most hotels offer Wi-Fi at a premium, and of course some trains (such as Virgin) offer it as well. Yet, what are the chances that when you really need it it’s not available?

Pretty good usually. Other options for Internet on the move include buying a dongle and using it with a mobile network such as Vodafone. Dongles have limited bandwidth, usually around 15GB per month, but are more than suitable for when you’re on the move. They’re fairly cheap too, starting at around £20 per month.

Another, more portable option of course is with an Internet enabled phone, such as a Blackberry, iPhone or HTC mobile. With one of these you can send and receive your emails wherever you are so long as you have a mobile phone signal. They’re cheaper than using a dongle or paying for a premium Wi-Fi connection too.

That amounts to roughly £373 for every business traveller in the UK.

The figures were revealed in a survey by Barclaycard that showed 32% of business men and women who were questioned said they didn’t claim back all of their travel expenses.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the survey also revealed that men were far lazier in claiming back their travel expenses than women.

Perhaps even more worrying is that if the employees were more careful about claiming back their travel expenses, the half a billion lost last year could have crippled many businesses in this recession.

The MD of Barclaycard, Neil Radley, stated:

Anyone who regularly travels on business knows keeping track of all expenses can be tricky, especially when your top priority is your performance. Managing incidental and often small costs can drop to the bottom of the list of priorities. Barclaycard has found that the most sensible action companies can take is to help their employees to centralise their costs and to give them the facility to create automatic records by using company credit cards responsibly to keep better track of their expenses.

Keith Millard, the station manager for Virgin, added:

Since last December we have had a high quality train service, using state-of-the-art tilting Pendolino trains from Liverpool to London, and now we have a high quality station facility to complement the trains.

We are confident that the improved facilities at the station will encourage more environmentally-conscious motorists to ditch the car and take the train.

First Class customers using the Liverpool to London route are also able to take advantage of a completely refurbished lounge at Euston station, which opened at the end of April.

Virgin’s new first class lounge in Liverpool adds to their compliment of luxury lounges for business travellers which already exist in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Coventry, Wolverhampton and Stoke-on-Trent.

52% of businessmen and women said they’d make the same number of trips in the next 12 months and 22% believe they’ll make more journeys in the next year.

26% of those polled said they expected to cut back on their travel in the next 12 months.

Kevin Maguire of the NBTA stated:

While the majority of business travellers understand the need to be prudent around costs, the most important issue for them when booking travel is convenience.

That’s why it is so vital that travel managers work with their communications colleagues to inform employees how travel changes are designed to meet both goals – cutting costs while offering convenience.

American Express is hoping to save $175 million through cutting employment figures and saving $500 million on marketing.

Kenneth Chenault is the CEO of Amex, he added:

While we have remained solidly profitable at a time when some parts of the card industry were incurring substantial losses, we continue to be very cautious about the economic outlook and are therefore moving forward with additional reengineering efforts to help further reduce our operating costs. We believe these efforts will put us in a better position to remain profitable and free up some additional resources that will be reinvested in the business to make sure we can take competitive advantage of opportunities as the economy begins to rebound.

The Wi-Fi is being provided by T-Mobile and will afford passengers uninterrupted wireless Internet access, even when the trains are going through tunnels. A spokeswoman for Virgin Trains stated:

Wireless internet is now live across our Pendolino fleet and the service is forecast to be up and running in our Super Voyager trains by this summer.

The wireless net installation commenced last year, and receivers for the Internet have been installed gradually on each train. The installation has now been completed.

First class passengers can use the wireless net access free of charge while they are on the trains, plus they can use it in the business lounge at train stations.

The Business Travel Show begins in Earl’s Court in February 9th 2010.

David Chapple is the director of the event. He stated:

Over the last two months we have listened carefully to what buyers and suppliers are experiencing, what they think, and what they want from their trade show.

It’s become clear that their overriding need at this stage is for an even greater return on investment and an event that continues to provide real value for buyers.

In 2010, the programme will bring even more corporate travel buyers with an annual spend in excess of £3 million to the show.

These buyers will be provided with a tailored and packed schedule of appointments, high-level education and exclusive daytime and evening networking events, and a dedicated concierge service to help them plan their visit.

If you’re in the business travel industry then the show is a must attend event.