DIARY OF EVENTS
2017 January 23 Business Travel Awards,
Grosvenor House Hotel, London
businesstravelawards.com
February 22-23 Business Travel Show,
Olympia Grand, London
businesstravelshow.com
March 8-12 ITB Berlin global travel
trade show
itb-berlin.de/en
March 23 BBT Forum, London
buyingbusinesstravel.com/events
April 23-25 ACTE Global Corporate Travel
Conference, New York City
acte.org
April 24-27 Arabian Travel Market, Dubai
arabiantravelmarket.com
May 2-4
ITM annual conference, Hilton Metropole, Birmingham
itmconference.org.uk
May 12-15 The Advantage Conference,
Club Med Opio en Provence
advantageconference.co.uk
July 12-13 Serviced Apartment Summit,
Park Plaza Victoria, London
servicedapartmentsummit.com
July 15-19 GBTA Convention 2017, Boston
gbta.org
September 26-28 IT&CM Asia and CTW
Asia-Pacific double-bill, Bangkok Convention Centre
itcma.com
142 BBT January/February 2017
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
Simone Buckley Chief executive, Institute of Travel Management (ITM)
ITM UPDATE SIMONE BUCKLEY Year of disruption
And you thought 2016 had been a tough 12 months...
rapid evolution of digital technologies. To echo a phrase from the former US Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld: there are many known unknowns. The status quo isn’t going to cut it this year. Effects are already being experienced – namely, the devaluation of sterling, an initial surge in oil prices following Opec’s agreement to cut production, potentially less global trade, a higher US dollar and interest-rate rises looming. It adds up to a heady cocktail of potentially higher prices and uncertainty – travel managers will have to be nimble-footed to keep ahead of the game in 2017. Yet when it comes to confidence, the majority of travel managers in
T
a recent poll we conducted at ITM are cautiously expecting growth this year. The cogs of global commerce still turn. Hands don’t shake themselves and open economies like the UK’s need vital trade links more than ever. So there’s a tinge of optimism. What is striking from our survey is that travel managers place traveller security as the number one priority for their organisations, ahead of cost reduction and budget control, which are ranked second and third in importance. There is no doubt that travel managers will be challenged to manage cost
increases from suppliers in 2017, while at the same time being expected by senior management to rein in travel spend. A good proportion of travel managers surveyed expect the cost of hotel nights and air tickets to increase as a result of the EU referendum result, and they see increasing compliance as a sure-fire way of keeping a lid on spending. It is interesting to note that 80 per cent of travel managers plan to conduct targeted renegotiations for their airline programmes instead of conducting a full request for proposal (RFP). Sixty-four per cent of respondents plan to conduct a full hotel RFP and only 35 per cent plan renegotiations; and 89 per cent of respondents believe negotiated fares and room rates will take precedence in their hotel and airline contracts for 2017, rather than spot buying.
For travel management companies (TMCs) it will be a busy year, as 47 per cent of respondents’ TMC contracts are due for renewal in 2017. Overall more buyers expect an increase in travel in 2017 than expect it to stay the same or decrease, so at ITM our advice would be to ‘keep calm and carry on’. It’s business as usual – until it’s not. For a copy of the full report, visit
itm.org.uk
HERE IS NO DOUBT THAT 2017 WILL BE AN INCREDIBLY TRICKY YEAR FOR TRAVEL MANAGERS. We are living in an age of disruption – the process of triggering of Article 50 post-Brexit, Donald Trump taking office, angst over Italy, general global economic uncertainty and the
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