AFRICA BY NICK EASEN
Six of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are now in Africa, and there’s also a burgeoning middle class, ready to spend
and there is a growing understand- ing of the continent’s intricacies. The gap between perception and reality is also narrowing.
city for British executives, according to booking figures compiled by American Express Global Business Travel for 2014. Air traffic for the region is also ex- pected to grow by more than 6 per cent this coming decade, according to the Boston Consulting Group, following in the footsteps of Asia, now an economic powerhouse. Travellers are increasingly realising that they’re not just getting on a plane to the United States of Africa. Nowhere else in the world would see 54 countries and over one billion people, speaking over 1,000 languages, lumped to- gether in the way that this continent has been. Yet attitudes are changing
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
MANAGING THE CHALLENGES “Managers need to get on a plane and visit the region, to see what their travellers are seeing and experiencing,” says Chris Pouney, partner at strategic consulting firm Nina & Pinta. “To manage trips effectively to, from or within the African region, a travel manager has to be at the absolute top of their game. There are no hiding places.” There is also no doubt that a productive, hassle-free trip can be crucial to a com- pany’s expansion in this booming region. “With many of the world’s traditionally strong economies stalling, many organisa- tions are looking to Africa to drive growth over the next decade,” says Pouney. “The rewards for managing travel here are great; but so, too, are the risks of getting it wrong.” And there can be some very simple, yet
disturbing pitfalls for the not-so-savvy travel manager. “In Lagos, Nigeria, if you’re connecting from a domestic flight to an international one, a change of terminal is generally needed – and this involves a journey of almost 6km with no real shuttle service operating between the two,” says Richard Saunders, senior director at Carlson Wagonlit Travel. There are also still a few African coun- tries that do not even have an embassy in the UK, such as Chad, Togo, the Central African Republic and Mali. “Visa appli- cations have to be sent to the relevant
embassy in Brussels or Paris, and allowing for this can help avoid stressful situations,” says Dan Hall, senior visa consultant at Diversity Travel.
UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET However, there is also still a limited un- derstanding of many African markets here in the UK. Combine this with a lack of information from the frontline and you have some real problems: organising ground transportation in Luanda is not the same as in Lisbon, and getting someone on to an offshore rig in Norway is a world away from a similar journey in Namibia. “Corporations and travel management companies [TMCs] often make assump- tions that what works in the UK and Europe will also be possible in Africa,” says Ciarán Kelly, general manager for FCM Travel Solutions’ Africa and Middle East networks, “especially in terms of payment solutions and internet availability.” In many cases, travel buying isn’t first- hand and nor is travel knowledge; that’s because a number of the big TMCs rely on local agencies, which are joint ventures or franchise affiliates, to manage bookings. “This often results in frustrating incon- sistencies with processes, data capture, reporting and, most importantly, service levels,” says Sonja Hamman, director of strategic client management at Wings Travel Management. According to a recent Severnside Consulting/ABTA report surveying 700 travel stakeholders, Understanding Busi- ness Travel in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 47 per cent of buyers could generate automated traveller-tracking reports, while 58 per cent aren’t getting data from their African offices. Even when they do receive it, 32 per cent believe the data is of poor quality. Consolidating TMC services is also a
goal for many buyers, yet this is a challenge because of inconsistent levels of service delivery across African markets, and differ- ing offerings in each country. “There is also a lack of effective account management in these markets,” says Hamman. “We’ve chatted with buyers who have not seen an account manager in almost a year. Where is the value in that partnership?”
BBT JULY/AUGUST 2015 63
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