Travel management companies need to widen their services and become part of a client’s overall corporate structure, delegates at this year’s GTMC conference were told.
TMCs should go beyond just managing a client’s travel and provide additional services like consultancy, facilities management, change management and security support, said a presentation put together by Hogg Robinson Group MD Mike Platt,
Due to last-minute business commitments Platt was unable to attend the conference in Las Vegas, but his presentation was relayed to delegates by the guild’s chief executive Philip Carlisle.
“The sort of skills a TMC has in relation to corporates could be applied to a broader spread,” said Platt. “Moving into the corporate services arena is the natural evolution for the larger TMCs.”
He said TMCs needed to create better recognition of the value they provide through benchmarking, knowledge, control, and must continually evolve.
“Our value is not recognised by the end user. They see the cost of the ticket but not the value in researching that ticket,” he said.
He said if you look at a corporate’s total travel spend, the cost of employing a TMC is actually no higher than 5%.
“But corporates should invest in this 5% because the TMC’s expertise will reduce the size of the other 95%,” he said.
By Bev Fearis
