GTMC conference report: Stick to basics, corporate travel managers tell TMCs
Travel management companies should stick to the basics and not try to offer too many travel services, according to corporate travel managers.
In a presentation to delegates at the GTMC conference in Las Vegas over the weekend, Institute of Travel Management (ITM) executive director Paul Tilstone said TMCs are trying too hard to look after their clients.
He said agents are too busy trying to compete with rivals and end up offering a huge list of services that corporates don’t actually want or need.
Speaking after the conference, GTMC chairman Paul Allen said he agreed with Tilstone’s comments.
“We’re always trying to go step further than our rivals and end up with a huge list of services that we can provide,” he said.
“It ends up being a marketing list. Basically, we need to cut out the dross and give the customer what they actually want.”
“We need to avoid the situation where we’re giving clients too much management information – say 27 copies of a document, on a disc, with a power point presentation, which the client only glances at once and that’s it. It was interesting for delegates to hear that from the corporate’s perspective and I tend to agree.”
According to a poll of ITM members, 20% of bookings are still going outside a corporate’s travel policy.
“Of course this is not what the corporate wants. It’s a big number and it’s down to us and them to bring it down,” said Allen.
By Bev Fearis
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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