BCD Travel Releases Sixth Annual Client Benchmark Survey

Corporations spend more on travel, but continue struggle to manage costs

London, 26 July, 2006 – Corporations are spending more on travel and asking employees to take more trips, according to BCD Travel’s 2006 Annual Client Benchmark Survey. Fifty-six percent of respondents reported an increase in their travel programme budget for 2006. This is an increase of 11 percent over last year’s finding.

“As a result, businesses will continue to struggle with balancing the need to travel with the need to manage costs,” said Mary Ellen George, general manager of BCD Travel Consulting. “However, a successful travel programme requires more than making the best of individual programme components, and we expect companies to continue to seek the right means for balancing costs while meeting the increasing demand for business travel.”

Released at the National Business Travel Association’s 38th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Chicago, BCD Travel’s 2006 Annual Client Benchmark Survey, conducted in May, represents the views of 181 BCD Travel customers. BCD Travel supplements the survey results with analysis of the data, client case studies and predictions for the coming year, making the survey an invaluable benchmarking and planning resource for those who manage travel. The 2006 Annual Client Benchmark Survey examines air, hotel, meetings and the other major areas of travel. It also discusses the latest advances in crisis management and online booking adoption. Further, the survey offers recommendations from BCD Travel’s global consulting practice, BCD Travel Consulting, on improving travel-programme savings during difficult negotiations and on developing strategies for reviewing a hotel programme.

The Client Benchmark Survey is available in a downloadable version at www.bcdtravel.co.uk. BCD Travel clients who participated in the survey will receive an additional comprehensive, customised peer benchmarking report comparing their responses with up to six peers.

Below are some of the survey’s key results and predictions:

* Hotel Negotiations/Challenges: Some companies are negotiating annual hotel contracts off-season, based on corporate fiscal procurement cycles rather than during the traditional fourth quarter. BCD Travel anticipates added complexity in negotiations as buyers determine how to measure and compare between properties with dynamic pricing versus traditional fixed rates. The top challenges of managing a hotel programme remain traveller compliance along with increased difficulty in obtaining inventory at preferred properties.

* Travel Programme Responsibility: The top three departments with primary responsibility for travel management continue to be procurement, finance and administration (tied with HR). A drop of 9 percent over 2005 shows a shift of travel management responsibility from corporate services to one of these three departments.

* Card Programme: 80 percent have a consolidated charge-card programme. Of that number, 44 percent said their programmes are global. Fifty percent mandate the use of a corporate card for reimbursement, a 6 percent increase over last year.

* Meetings: 40 percent of companies manage meetings through the corporate travel department. Fifty-eight percent said their company’s travel department is responsible for air only, while 10 percent leverage meetings air spend for transient travel.

* Airfare: It’s steadily increasing for both domestic and international markets. Corporate air programme performance has been targeted as a savings item for the air carriers with 62 percent of BCD Travel’s survey respondents reporting contract cancellation for not meeting market share commitments.

* Crisis Management: 83 percent of respondents reported use
of a technology tool to track travellers, while 53 percent said these tools are global or multi-national in scope.
Global Consolidation: Respondents reported a 5 percent increase in globally consolidated travel programmes over 2005. Of those reporting consolidation, North America and Europe continue to dominate the regions of consolidations, followed by Asia Pacific and Latin America.