bookings they make, as well as the absence from these average statistics of the very large TMCs, means that it is more a snapshot of the TMC sector beyond the top five. Despite those caveats, it’s a handy view of what is going on in the sector, particularly when we look at last year. Average gross sales are up by 6.2 per
E
cent on 2010, while the average number of transactions are up by around 5.2 per cent year-on-year. The average transaction value rose from £415.39 to £536.67, an increase of 29.1 per cent, perhaps reflecting the better yields that travel suppliers are able to generate as a result of business coming back into the market. The average TMC also has a much bigger proportion of hotel transactions, as TMCs do more to encourage clients to book through them rather than directly.
Average TMC profile ■ Business travel gross sales 2011 £142.7m
■ Number of transactions 250,246 ■ Transaction value £536.67 ■ Air 45.7% ■ Hotel 26.2% ■ Road 5.7% ■ Rail 15.1% ■ MICE 5.4% ■ Other 1.9%
NEW BUSINESS Each year, we ask Britain’s TMCs about their new business wins. Some companies are a little reticent in telling us, perhaps not wanting to draw too much attention to what they have won
ach year, we put together a profile of the “average TMC”. The scale of the different
organisations involved, including the types of
or lost. However, many are only too happy to trumpet their success. Our table below shows the total volume of new business as well as the fast-track of companies, which ranks TMCs by new business volumes against turnover. This year’s clear star is Redfern Travel, which tops both lists as a result of its success in winning the domestic business of the UK central government.
ONLINE MARCHES ONWARD Many TMCs are handling an increasing number of their bookings online. Redfern Travel, which processes a large number of rail bookings, increased the proportion handled online again, from 93.2 per cent last year to 96 per cent this. Cresta World Travel is a new entrant to the online champions league.
GDS WARS The global distribution system (GDS) companies are again fairly evenly matched this year, although Sabre is now named specifically by 22 companies against 25 last year. Amadeus is listed by 21 TMCs while 23 name the two Travelport GDSs – 20 say they use Galileo and just three use Worldspan.
FORECASTS FOR 2012 We have again polled our surveyed TMCs about their thoughts on the current state of the market. See fig 1 (right) for what they thought. We also asked TMCs where they felt
growth was coming from in 2012. A whopping 93.2 per cent of respondents said they expected this to come from new customers, against 4.5 per cent for general market growth and 2.3 per cent from existing clients. Further questions revealed that winning
new business was the top priority for the coming year (fig 2), and that increasing technology investment is once again a key area for many TMCs (fig 3). ■
Total new business won 1 Redfern Travel £150m
2 FCm Travel Solutions £90m 3 Expotel £60m
70 1
4 Capita Business Travel £48m 5 Portman Travel £47m