THE GTMC COLUMN PAUL WAIT
Paul Wait is chief executive of the Guild of Travel Management Companies (
gtmc.org)
THE ACTE COLUMN CAROLINE ALLEN
Caroline Allen is the regional director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (
acte.org)
TIME FOR ACTION MOBILEGEDDON! F
IT’S TIME FOR UK PLC TO GET DOWN TO SOME SERIOUS BUSINESS
ollowing the general election result that Clegg and Miliband had dreaded, and that even Mr Cameron himself hadn’t expected, it’s important to consider the implications now that the new government is settling in. While we outlined the demands of the business traveller in the GTMC’s own manifesto, informed by research within the business travel community, now is the time to really start considering how economic, political and transport issues will play out over the first year of the Conservative’s time in office.
Acknowledging the fact that business travellers
are voters too will help garner support in this community but, more importantly, will go a long way in terms of rebalancing the economy and ensuring the UK’s commercial competitiveness on an international scale.
In their election manifesto the Conservative Party confirmed its commitment to improving transport facilities and infrastructure in a number of areas: for the rail network, there was support for high-speed rail, action to reduce rail fares and investment in free wifi; for road travel, an investment in additional motorway construction. Both road and rail have a critical role to play in laying solid foundations from which UK plc can increase business travel and, therefore, grow the economy. Following Sir Howard Davies launching a further public consultation period in May, at time of going to press there is a threat of June’s report being delayed. It is even more disappointing to hear of the additional setback, in that the government is unlikely to make a decision before the end of 2015.
The onus is on the Conservatives for swift action, not only in addressing the issue of airport expansion but for all transport issues. With international trade a key priority for the party, it’s important that spades are in the ground by 2020 and a clear plan looking ahead to 2030 and beyond is put in place. The policy recommendations laid out by business travellers themselves in our research highlight what is needed to determine economic growth. These foundations must be driven and supported by the new UK government for us to continue to play in the global market and support a sustainable economic recovery. Put simply, business travel facilitates future economic growth – something which I hope the Tories are already acting on as a priority as they take their seats in Westminster.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM
CHOICE AND COST OF DISTRIBUTION IS A HOT TOPIC FOR CORPORATES
M
obile to overtake fixed internet access by 2014: this was the bold prediction touted by pundits in 2008. Desktop use has started to plateau with 1,600 million reported users in early 2015,
while mobile internet user numbers continue to grow from 400 million in 2007 to 1,900 million today. Online shopping ‘add to cart’ via mobile is reported to
be around 50 per cent lower than for desktop and tablet users; yet based on growth patterns, mobile is on the cusp of emerging as the dominant channel in search marketing. Consumers are becoming more comfortable completing transactions on their smartphones, so advertisers are investing in mobile optimisation to capitalise on that trend. In early May 2015, Google announced more searches
are now made on mobile than on desktop in ten countries, including the US and Japan, although it doesn’t provide a breakdown or list the other countries. Google processes more than 100 billion search requests worldwide each month, including on PCs, but experienced a decline in average advertising revenues for the past three- and-half years, partly because marketers were unwilling to pay as much for their commercial message to be displayed on smaller smartphone screens. However, after introducing advertising formats that work better on mobile devices, it’s no surprise that, as part of the mobile transition, Google now actively favours websites that are easier to read and load onto smartphones. Known as ‘Mobilegeddon’, the Google ranking change has forced development of millions of websites to ensure they work effectively on smartphones to avoid demotion in search results.
In addition to PC/desktop and mobile devices, tablets, games consoles, smart TVs, smartwatches and smart-wristbands are all used to access the internet, so the ability to market products in different formats beyond a desk-based page is essential. The most common searches originate through search engines with 48 per cent; 33 per cent through branded sites; and 26 per cent through branded apps. People are doing more business directly, so big investment is being made in app development. Based on research, 89 per cent of overall media time is spent on mobile apps versus 11 per cent through mobile web. So it’s no surprise that the choice and cost of distribution for corporate travel services continues to be a hot topic and sits high on ACTE education agendas around the world. It’s critical to understand industry developments to be able to strategise, so make sure you attend face-to-face local, regional and global ACTE education forums and conferences, as well as webinars and online conferences, to listen, exchange ideas and have your say.
BBT JULY/AUGUST 2015 87
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