The Travel Industry Association of America is reporting a 3.8 percent increase in the number of domestic business trips in the first six months of 2004, compared to the same period in 2003. That might not be recovery, but it's a move — finally — in the right direction. According to the TIA, business travel was on a steady slide from 1998 to 2003, dropping 14.2 percent overall during those years and more (16.5 percent) if you look only at business travel for those attending a convention, conference, or seminar.

The numbers are from TIA's 2004 Business and Convention Travelers Report, released in early February, which compiles results from three major studies:The 2004 Business Traveler Survey, an online survey of of 2,043 U.S. adults who took at least one business trip between September 2003 and August 2004 (sponsored by the National Business Travel Association and its research foundation); the 2002 Air Traveler Survey, sponsored by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics; and TravelScope, the TIA research department's monthly survey of 25,000 U.S. households. Some findings:

• Overall, the study estimates that in 2003, business travel expenditures amounted to $153.2 billion, accounting for 31 percent of all domestic travel spending.

• One in five (19 percent) U.S. business travelers reported that they expect to travel more (19 percent) or the same (59 percent) between September 2004 and August 2005 as they did the previous year.

• The percentage of business air travelers using a communication technology to replace travel was down from 47 percent in 2002 to 40 percent in 2004.

• About half of business travelers (49 percent) expressed safety and security concerns.