UK-based business travel salaries are forecast to rise by 5.6 per cent in 2026, according to fresh data from specialist travel recruiter C&M Travel Recruitment.
The figures have been published alongside a new salary benchmarking tool, which combines the company’s own proprietary recruitment data with official statistics from the UK Office for National Statistics. C&M says the tool allows employers to benchmark pay across a range of travel roles, including corporate travel consultants, and to track how those figures are moving.
According to the tool, the average salary for corporate travel consultants in the UK has risen steadily since 2017, interrupted only by a brief 0.6 per cent dip between 2019 and 2020. In 2026, the projected median salary for the role is £32,235, up 5.8 per cent on the £30,570 recorded in 2025.
Pay continues to vary sharply by region. Consultants in London command the highest median salary at £34,592, while those in the Midlands sit at the lower end of the scale on a median of £31,091.
Beyond headline figures, the tool lets companies compare salaries across different travel industry roles, monitor pay trends and assess regional differences throughout the UK. The data is refreshed monthly to incorporate the previous month’s figures, C&M says, complementing the firm’s existing monthly Travel Salary Index, which is built on ongoing market analysis.
The launch comes at a testing moment for the sector, where rising costs and persistent recruitment pressures continue to shape hiring strategies. The travel and tourism industry faces a worldwide workforce shortfall of 43 million workers by 2035, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, underlining why competitive, transparent pay has become a priority for employers trying to attract and retain talent.
Commenting on the launch, C&M Travel Recruitment co-owner and managing director Barbara Kolosinska said: “This is a challenging period for many travel companies with every penny being watched, so this is the ideal time to offer this comprehensive salary guide, for free, to all travel companies operating across the UK.”
The release of the tool follows a year in which pay and conditions have stayed firmly in the spotlight across the wider travel economy, from consultancy salaries through to disputes such as the recent Scottish airport pay ballots and a steady stream of fresh hiring drives, including Ryanair’s 140 new cabin crew roles at Stansted.
While C&M’s data focuses on the supplier side of the industry, a separate annual study reviewed by Travelling for Business found that travel managers in the UK and Germany are among the best paid in Europe, earning average annual salaries of 79,182 euros and 77,536 euros respectively, up 1.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent year on year. By contrast, travel managers in Italy earned an average of 40,770 euros, reflecting a broader pattern of comparatively lower wages in the country relative to much of Western Europe.
Taken together, the two datasets point to a market in which travel pay is edging upwards across both buyer and supplier roles, even as employers keep a close eye on every line of the budget.
