DATA


Travel by numbers N


Reading the cards: Amon Cohen finds out what management information can tell us about the state of the business travel marketplace


ot Going Out is the name of a BBC sitcom – one with much to answer for, given that it gave Miranda Hart


one of her first big breaks. However, “not going out” is also a phrase that would appear to apply to British business travellers based on much of the latest aggregated transaction data from various companies in the corporate payments sector. That said, just as the British


people are divided over whether Ms Hart is excruciatingly funny or merely excruciating, not every card company agrees that business


16 • Buying Business Travel 2013


travellers have been taking fewer trips in recent months.


CONFLICTING INFORMATION Visa says the number of corporate card transactions it handled in Europe last year rose 10 per cent, mainly because of existing clients of Visa-issuing banks expanding their card programmes into new markets. Yet Citi reports that total air spend by existing clients fell 7 per cent, even though the average ticket price rose 7 per cent. “Clients that are doing well are maintaining their travel, and those which are travelling are having to spend more,” says Steve Robson,


head of commercial cards, EMEA, for Citi. Robson adds that total card transactions jumped 12-13 per cent in 2012, thanks to new clients and, similar to the observations of Visa, multinational Citi clients rolling their programmes into new territories. Another issuer reporting mixed


results is American Express. According to Alan Gillies, the company’s vice-president UK sales for global corporate payments, total transactions rose 4 per cent across Europe last year. “That was driven mainly by non-


travel and entertainment business- to-business transactions, which grew


In association with


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