THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 w ITM Conference ➔ Staying connected at ITM 2011
Two days of industry debate explored old and new issues alike, says Gillian Upton, who reports on proceedings at ITM Intelligence 2011
BLURRING the lines between buyer, supplier and intermediaries was the message reiterated at the 2011 ITM Conference in Oxford. “I’d like to drop those labels,”
said ITM chair Jamie Hindhaugh. “It’s about coming together as we’re all trying to do the same thing. Together we’re a lot stronger than we are separately.“ His plea in his closing remarks was to “stay connected.” However, one industry body yet
to learn this lesson is the GTMC, explained Hindhaugh, as they declined a place on the ITM board and the offer to power ITM's project Phoenix after six months of negotiation. “They see us as competitors and it’s a real missed opportunity.” Advantage Business Travel Management will power Phoenix instead. There were mixed views of
the content on Day One of the conference, despite a thought- provoking keynote speech from Dr Ian Goldin of Oxford Martin School. He extrapolated the trend of globalisation and the rapid rise of the Asian economies, specifically the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) and predicted fewer meetings, more effective ones, a tilt towards virtual travel and more cross- cultural harmonisation. EasyJet’s CEO Carolyn McCall
OBE explained that there are plans to make their baggage strategy easier, and that the carrier is “shifting their position” on corporate deals. A session looking at the intermediary relationship highlighted the “little voice” of distrust that gets in the way of creating relationships. Carlson Wagonlit Travel's Nigel Turner warned that good relationships don’t necessarily bring good results and co-panellist Gary Hance from ATPI said the opposite was true. “Bad relation- ships certainly mean bad results.” Turner noted that clients and TMCs may have different rule books but must have the same goals to move the travel management programme
Pictured: ITM chair, Jamie Hindhaugh; Below: ITM Chief Executive Paul Tilstone and Dr Ian Goldin
forward. A straw poll concluded that working relationships between intermediaries and buyers have got worse over the last ten years, mainly due to a lack of transparency. Day Two’s sessions were meatier and packed with data. One session on hotels and the 2012 Olympic effect highlighted the fact that many former Olympic cities had massively over-estimated extra bednights. “I think for hotels, if there is no demonstrable demand for London hotels post-Olympic there could be problems,” warned Liz Hall of PwC. The number of new rooms in the capital is swelling by 3,000 this year and 4,000 in 2012. “That’s quite a spike, with almost an 11 per cent increase in supply,” said Hall. This should help even out the shortage of supply for the MICE
market in the peak autumn season, although David Taylor of Grass Roots noted a swing away from hotels to serviced apartments and made a plea for corporates to move events to shoulder seasons to get a deal. The lack of like-for-like cost comparison on booking tools because of non-inclusive fares being uploaded was highlighted in the session on moving people. “How do we simplify this process?” asked speaker Chris Reynolds of 3Sixty Global. “By the technology companies, TMCs, corporates and suppliers all talking to each other. “ The emergence of long-haul low-cost carriers was predicted, exemplified by AirAsia, while for rail, print-at-home tickets and barcodes in mobiles would be the next development in ticket technology. No-show fees will
become the industry norm with car hire, it was predicted. A final session stressed the importance of strategic KPIs to measure how well a travel programme is performing in meeting core strategic corporate goals, such as revenue generation, cost containment or sustainability. It is an area in which the financial services sector leads the way. “They are not SLAs”, pointed out Jeroen Hurkmans, vice president of the EMEA/APAC region for Advito, “which are tactical, operational and specific.” Hurkmans recommended that between eight and 12 KPIs is manageable.
“Clients and TMCs may have different rule books but must have the same goals to move the travel management programme forward”
40 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE
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