»»Companies Preparing New Cost-Cutting Policies for Business Travel
As the rising cost of airfare had caused many companies to re-think their travel policies, the financial markets crisis is putting even more pressure on travel managers continuously seeking cost-reduction ways.
Forbes reports that a survey carried out this month by ACTE — Association of Corporate Travel Executives, shows that for 61% of companies cost-reduction was their primary goal when it came to corporate travel.
That is already impacting on hotels and airlines, with premium airline traffic dropped 1.5 percent in August — source: IATA, and hotel occupancy in September down by 5-7% over the previous year — source: Smith Travel Research.
Forbes listed some of cost-cutting strategies executives are taking. Cutting measures including traveling in coach on international flights, downgrading from Town Cars to taxis, or sharing hotel rooms with same-sex co-workers. Also web conferencing alternatives are increasingly considered to reduce the global travel budget.
However many companies also take advantage of the business climate which now favors the buyer instead of the supplier, to renegotiate their travel contracts to include free Internet or access to the gym.
Finally the newspaper notes that these new measures will come with higher expectations of traveling employees. It will no longer be enough to return from a trip only having wined-and-dined a client.
Now, many companies will expect a “return on [the] investment”, Ultimately, this puts pressure on employees to generate even more revenue from travel than they might have before. (source)
