The Business Travel Industry is Looking at “Travel Guilt”

For the third year the industry will measure progress made to tackle travel impact on greenhouse gas emission.

Paris , December 18, 2007 , KDS, the European leader in on-demand travel and expense solutions and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives are issuing a survey to gauge how corporations and travellers are taking into account environmental issues in their business travel management.

In this year’s edition of their third survey, ACTE and KDS are asking industry members about a rising feeling among environmental conscious travellers: “the travel guilt”.

The survey will tell if business travellers are increasingly ashamed of contributing to greenhouse gas emission and if travel policies are progressively promoting “green” travel suppliers.

Although many firms are actively putting together a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, most of their actions are targeting their production and core service area. Too often, corporations omit to include travel in their CSR plan. However, airlines are said to produce 3 percent of the total emission of greenhouse gas and that is not going to get better anytime soon if traffic trends prove to be correct.

The ACTE , KDS survey will reveal whether things have changed in 2007.

The new study is also looking at how respondents feel about their employee’s social corporate responsibility’s program. Previous studies exposed the gap between public announcements of goodwill and concrete actions. They also made clear how difficult it was for travel buyers to find any “green” travel service suppliers.

A year ago the ACTE ? KDS study showed that although most respondents said they were “working on it” nothing was actually in place to track and reduce travel related carbon emissions. Will things have moved forward a year later?

Individual travellers and travel managers are warmly invited to contribute to the study by answering 21 short questions online.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/
s.aspx?sm=1FrXA9GQTEOGtEpOAlhstg_3d_3d

Results will be announced during the London Business Travel show on February 5 to 7, 2008.

About KDS

KDS on-demand travel & expense offers a completely integrated solution for travel and expense management, addressing essential needs ranging from travel policy definition and enforcement, to online travel self-booking, to automated travel expense processing and beyond. Every critical procedure can be completed through the KDS ASP offering, resulting in greater efficiencies and associated financial benefits. In addition, KDS offers the most extensive back-end connectivity to airline, car, rail and hotel providers in the industry, ensuring optimized pricing and up-to-the-minute inventory control. For more information, visit www.kds.com.

About ACTE

The Association of Corporate Travel Executive (ACTE) is a non-profit association established to provide executive-level global education and peer-to-peer networking opportunities. Membership spans all of business travel, from corporate buyers to agencies to suppliers, and accords all sectors equal membership. ACTE is represented in 49 countries.