IT SURE SEEMS like every newspaper in America is running Scott Mayerowitz's piece on the ongoing business travel rebound. After all, everyone likes good news:

U.S. companies are forecast to spend 5 percent more on travel in 2011 than they did last year — a sign of confidence in the economy that is giving a boost to airlines, hotels and rental-car companies. That's double the growth rate from 2010, which followed two years of decline.

This makes sense, of course. It's hard to imagine 3.2% GDP growth without a business travel expansion. But as my colleague at Free Exchange did with those GDP growth numbers, Gulliver feels obligated to sound a note of caution. America's economic recovery remains fragile. Employment growth remains sluggish. Mr Mayerowitz notes that corporate retreats are coming back into vogue. That's good news for the hospitality industry. But what would really benefit every sector of the economy—and every business-travel-dependent business—is more people returning to work. Unfortunately, that's not what's happening right now.

Here's the reality: most analysts don't expect business travel spending to return to its pre-recession highs until mid-2013. We're starting to travel more, but we're flying coach, not business class. We're not even necessarily flying direct. We may be going on corporate retreats, but they're at bargain destinations. Average cost-per-trip, a key measure, is still 6% below its 2008 high. Mr Mayerowitz gets to all this in his story—but not until the ninth and tenth paragraph. By then, many readers will have drifted off. They won't even realize that the trumpeted "return of corporate retreats" means retreat bookings are expected to bounce back to "just short of their 2007 level." Things are looking up, sure. But there is still a long, hard climb ahead.