<p>The recession has changed the nature of business tourism, with companies choosing to downgrade hotels and selecting lower-starred accommodation, according to an expert.</p><p>Gillian Upton, editor of The Business Travel Magazine, suggests that firms are having to go for "quite basic" arrangements considering the current climate.</p><p>"You don't need 15 restaurants and three bars, one restaurant will do and as long as you get a clean room with a power shower and you can plug in your laptop," she insists.</p><p>Ms Upton suggests that based on reports from sources within the industry, this situation is unlikely to change when the country emerges from the recession.</p><p>She adds that firms are also tightening business travel policies as a result of the new corporate manslaughter legislation, ensuring that their employees are staying in hotels that have been checked out by the company in order to guarantee their safety.</p><p>Egencia's Global Benchmarking Study and Assessment of Corporate Travel Spend has revealed that London has seen 18 per cent reductions in hotel lodging prices in the first quarter of 2009.<br/><img alt="ADNFCR-1753-ID-19174759-ADNFCR" src="http://feeds.directnews.co.uk/feedtrack/justcopyright.gif?feedid=1753&it..." /></p>

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