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90% business travel booked online?
By the end of 2003 more than 90% of companies with managed travel programmes will book individual travel online, according to recent research.
A survey, sponsored by PhoCusWright and the US’ National Business Travel Association (NBTA), claims that: “By year’s end, more than nine in 10 companies with managed travel programmes will be using an online booking tool for transient individual travel and, more than four in 10 will be doing so for meetings/group travel.
“Bottom line savings, traveller ease of use and continued budget scrutiny are the driving forces behind this level of market penetration, and are translating into significantly higher levels of adoption over the next two years for both types of travel.”
PhoCusWright claims that one of the biggest motivations to turn to the online tools is the cost saving. It says 70% of companies surveyed “have realized some level of savings by using corporate online booking tools”.
It continues: “Companies continue to measure success of online booking tools primarily in terms of transaction fee (39%) and average ticket price (27%) savings. Process efficiencies are driving the greatest bottom line return with almost one quarter of all companies reporting transaction savings in excess of 20%.”
PhoCusWright said the most important features of an online booking tool for corporate users was access to all fares, more robust hotel booking tools and effective exchanges and refunds.
The survey was based on responses from 206 NBTA members from a cross-section of industries and travel budgets. Of the respondants, 52% said they will be using online booking tools for both corporate travel and meeting reservations, projected to rise to 71% by 2005.
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