GEORGE W BUSH and Bill Clinton topped the bill of keynote speakers at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Centre, with more star quality provided by comedian and Saturday Night Live chief writer Seth Meyers. Other speakers and panelists at 2012’s GBTA Convention included the chief executives of many major airlines, hotel groups and technology companies. Travel buyers also had the choice of more than 60 educational seminars and debates.
BIG SAVINGS Travel managers were urged to tackle the “last frontier of unmanaged travel spending”, in a seminar hosted by BCD Travel. The session explored how delegates can make big savings in the areas of food and beverage (F&B), international mobile roaming charges and ground transport. BCD told the audience that research showed these areas can account for an average of 18 per cent of a company’s travel and expenses (T&E) budget, while F&B is about 10 per cent of total US domestic travel spend. BCD director Ken Augustine
said travel managers with mature programmes have already driven a “tremendous amount of savings” in categories such as air and hotels, so the “timing is right” to turn attention to these more lightly managed areas. Truphone executive director
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Pascal de Hesselle cited a CCMI study of Fortune 1,000 companies, which showed more than half of respondents spent an average of at least US$500 per user per month on roaming costs for their international travellers, while over a third saw that figure rise to more than US$1,000. He said the survey also found “horror stories” of monthly bills in excess of US$10,000.
The annual GBTA convention in Boston saw record-breaking numbers, with more than 6,600 attendees from around the world, including over 1,400 travel buyers – and two former US presidents. Paul Revel reports
Business eye
Star speakers: former US president Bill Clinton and (inset) Saturday Night Live’s Seth Meyers De Hesselle told delegates
about Truphone’s multiple identity SIM card, which gives one mobile device several phone numbers that automatically apply to local networks in 200 countries. He said the tool can save up to 90 per cent on international call costs. Augustine suggested buyers looked at innovations in ground transport, such as hourly-rental Zipcars, which can be booked and unlocked via apps. He also said buyers should talk to their TMCs about automatic “trigger” text messages, for example reminding travellers to save money by using rail instead of taxis after disembarking from a flight. Panellist Chris Froelich is vice- president at Dinova, which offers corporate discounts at 5,400
restaurants in North America, with the rebate mechanism managed via companies’ corporate cards. Froelich told buyers: “Dining is part of a company’s spend that is often no-one’s overall responsibility, so grab it if you can.” He said companies can save up to 4 per cent on their overall F&B costs using the service.
BCD director of research
Claudia Unger showed an example of a real US-London international trip where applying these methods would have saved US$151 of the US$334 spent in a single 24-hour period.
STOP PRESS New GBTA research showing that average trip costs for
unmanaged travellers were lower than for those following policy was a “stop the press moment” for travel buyers, according to business travel guru Scott Gillespie. GBTA’s study of US business
travellers also revealed that those unmanaged travellers placed more importance on getting the best price than those booking within policy guidelines or mandated policies. Gillespie is founder of Travel Analytics, which was bought by travel tech firm TRX, and is now CEO of Gillespie’s Guide to Travel and Procurement. He was presenting a session entitled ‘Managed Travel 2.0’, with consultant Evan Konwiser, who co-founded flight-delay predicting tool Flightcaster.