THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE I 39 w Conference Report ➔ TMCs: it's time to change


Gillian Upton reports from the Guild of Travel Management Companies annual conference, where the future of air travel, content distribution and new technologies were among hot topics


CONTENT aggregation, direct connect and the old hoary chestnut – who is going to pay for industry infrastructure – were all raised under the GTMC's conference theme, Future insights, in Abu Dhabi in May. While flagging up double digit growth – the first in four years – GTMC chairman Michael Hare warned that challenges remained, such as airport infrastructure. “That’s why it’s important to come together as an industry,” he said. The audience heard from Manchester Airport’s Jonathan Bailey on how the government is hostile to aviation and intent on throttling it. “It’s impossible to make Heathrow better without it getting bigger,” he reckons. But he also believes that the UK is not short of capacity if it utilises the 15 runways around the country. “Think carefully about where you place your business,” he said. How TMCs serve customers would have to evolve, according to PwC's David Trunkfield, in his presentation on tomorrow’s world. He suggested more creative ticketing and a more tailored approach to give greater value. In a rushed panel debate, HRG's


Tony Berry flagged up the trend of corporations looking hard at where they locate their headquarters, “as the UK is too expensive with APD,” he reckons. Recognising the emerging BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), Etihad’s Danny Barringer questioned where airport hubs might be in three to


five years’ time, suggesting India could develop as a major hub. Virgin Atlantic’s Paul Wait predicted that the UK “would be spectators in these emerging markets”, and that reducing APD would increase our competitiveness. On life under the coalition, Gareth Morgan, from the GTMC's lobbying partner, Cavendish, explained that more MPs were questioning the southeast's airport capacity issue behind the scenes, and that translated into an opportunity to exploit the divisions. “They are ex-businesspeople who dislike the Heathrow policy and who are seen as future government frontbenchers,” explained Morgan. Yves Galimidi, global


travel purchaser at IKEA, predicted that Generation X & Y wouldn’t see travel as glamorous and, that it was the role of TMCs to become content and pricing aggregators. BCD's Chris Crowley highlighted


that by 2015 the EMEA region will be smaller than APAC and the Americas, “so we’ll have difficulty filling a call centre.” On Day Two, we heard more


of the same: GDSs too slow to combat direct connect, more pleas for content aggregation, and who’s going to pay for distribution costs. In the session called Futurama. IKEA’s Galimidi said: “TMCs and


" Travel management companies want fairness and parity, but are being used as pawns in the GDS battle"


GDSs are tied together, otherwise they’d be


competitors.” A report


from the GTMC's 20/20 committee on social media gave a conflicting picture of the future. Despite smartphones having replaced briefcases, there are a surprising number of non-Generation X & Y travellers using iPads and other new technology – the majority of business travellers, over 70 per cent, are over the age of 30. TMCs have been slow to launch


their own apps as a new way to connect to consumers and companies such as Google are a threat to TMCs. The Q&A session highlighted that for every ten apps downloaded only three are used, and most of them for entertain- ment purposes. The astronomical costs of data roaming was another point made: “Are we really moving into a world that’s better?” The threat of direct connect and aggregators peppered the session called Under Pressure. In his opening comments, Portman’s Michael Hare said that TMCs wanted fairness and parity but were being used as pawns in the GDS battle: “Someone’s making huge amounts of money out of


tools and affiliate commissions,” he said. Egencia’s Jonny Shingles added: “We’re squeezed between the customer and the supplier.” BA's Richard Tams referred to Portman’s Hare as the grim reaper, adding: ”Never has there been a better time for a TMC to add value but your tone is depressive.” Egencia’s Shingles suggested that TMCs should offer thought leadership “as TMCs are in a confused place.” In the Future of Rail session, speaker Adrian Watts, director of sales & distribution at thetrainline. com, cautioned that business travellers will be paying more as the gap widened between business and leisure train fares and, on the plus side, that travellers would soon have smartcard tickets and barcode-reading ticket gates that will enrich the data that TMCs receive. Jon Reeve of Evolvi warned that some mobile phone apps circumvent travel policy. In closing the conference, GTMC


chief executive Anne Godfrey had some terse words for members, urging TMCs to buy shovels and dig themselves out and change: “Travel needs to reinvent itself and change the way it works. There is no other industry I know that does not pay for its infrastructure. We shouldn’t be immune to change.”


26 I THE BUSINESS TRAVEL MAGAZINE


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