MEETINGS AND EVENTS
MICE means business for China
A RISE IN DEMAND FOR MEETINGS, INCENTIVES, CONFERENCES AND EXHIBITIONS (MICE) bookings in China has helped the country record an “unprecedented” growth in business travel, according to a Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) report. The study found business travel spend in China is growing at more than double the rate of its GDP growth. It’s expected to increase by 16.5 per cent to US$262.1 billion in 2014, and will overtake the US in 2015 as the world’s number-one business travel market. “The growth in China’s economy has been unprecedented,
propelling the country’s business market to the second largest in the world,” said GBTA Asia regional director, Welf J Ebeling. “This has been driven by real spending gains from rising business travel demand in both transient, and group meetings and events.” The report, GBTA BTI Outlook, found the surge in Chinese business travel spending is driven by both domestic and international outbound travel, with domestic being the main impetus, making up almost 95 per cent of the spending on Chinese business travel.
Ebeling said: “Even facing headwinds due to restrictions on spending in the public sector, domestic business travel spending continues to grow, and international outbound also shows some promising signs of growth.”
TRAINING
IN CONVERSATION… Barry Liben
Travel Leaders Group CEO Barry Liben was in London to mark the merger of the company’s largest UK operations, Protravel International and Tzell UK. The two businesses employ more than 60 independent travel agents. He talks to BBT’s editor, Paul Revel
touch, that never wants to speak to an agent, and that doesn’t care about service or where they stay, then we don’t want them. We handle both types of customers – the VIPs, plus the more mass market. We do the New York Stock Exchange – we do big names, and a lot of that is on an automated booking system.
Barry Liben
If I’m a corporate client, why would I go to a Travel Leaders agent as opposed to a more typical business TMC? The difference is gigantic. If you’re working for one of the major TMCs, you’re a paid employee. I’m sure many of them do a good job, but their pay cheques are not dependent on what they do. The agents at Tzell and Pro are completely commissioned; they’re independent. We give them everything they need to work, but if they fail, they lose their client. It creates a devotion to the client that no one else can master.
Online travel training
BUYING BUSINESS TRAVEL and online training specialist OTT have partnered with Qantas to offer a new training course for travel professionals. The module covers Qantas product, network, partnerships and fares.
The course includes information on Qantas’s A380 service and its four cabin classes, including first class suites with an eight- course tasting menu, fully-flat beds and an onboard lounge in business class, and 35-seat upper deck premium economy cabin. Training modules also cover Qantas’s partnership with Emirates, and the frequent flyer programme. ■ Visit
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14 BBT MAY/JUNE 2014
The TMC market is very competitive – why are you seeing strong growth? I’ve been in the business for 38 years and one thing I’ve never worried about is competition. What market is unlimited like travel? There’s no end to the number of people who travel. Also, we’re a pretty big company, and not many firms can bring that to the table.
Would it be fair to say if a client wanted a low-touch, low-cost, automated system they would probably go somewhere else? We have that, too. But if they’re a company that only wants something with no
There’s been a big debate around airline distribution between airlines, GDSs and agents – how do you think it’s going to affect the TMC market? The airlines have been trying for years to improve their cost of distribution and get the travel agent profit set around the GDS. My opinion is that the likes of Sabre and Amadeus are going nowhere. Will there be modifications to it? Possibly. But I believe for the next ten years you won’t see any substantial change.
Does anybody know what new distribution capability (NDC) is yet? No. We think it’s a fancy way of selling ancillary services, which was already going on. NDC is not keeping me up at night – as a matter of fact, two of my own people are even on the board. We’re going to have a hand in shaping that. People in the travel world tend to be freaked out when anything new is introduced. I’m a veteran, I’ve been doing it 38 years. In 1995, Delta decided to take away agent commissions. You would have thought agents were going to jump out the windows, but it was the best day of my life. Small agencies that couldn’t make a living had to find a big brother, had to find a safe harbour, and we were there to take them all.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
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