Stewart Harvey, HRG group commercial director, said the economic outlook was driving companies to seek new business and this means prioritising markets with the healthiest prospects for growth. This means that organisations will spend differently when it comes to travel.
“Clients will be looking for greater control over travel options in traditional markets through smarter travel and travel alternatives for internal meetings, such as video conferencing. Money saved can then be reallocated to allow greater focus on growing and emerging markets where the opportunity for new business is strongest such as China, India and Brazil.”
As corporations look to control costs, HRG predicts most travel managers will be under pressure to look more closely at travel and expense authorisation before trips are made.
Responsibility for authorising travel typically falls to line-managers but, as they too are likely to be travellers, there will be an increased demand for technologies, which extend across desktop and mobile devices.
With corporations increasingly focused on accurate forecasts for total trip costs before travel is authorised, HRG expects the travel industry to once again come under pressure to provide greater transparency and standardisation for ancillary fees.
HRG believes demand for business travel will remain healthy in 2012, but expects suppliers to stay conservative in their outlook, controlling inventory and capacity in an endeavour to minimise exposure to risk.
“There have been tremendous swings in travel demand over the last few years. The current economic situation makes it very difficult for industry suppliers to make firm predictions, so we fully expect them to err on the side of caution,” said Harvey.
Projected annual growth figures from the Global Business Travel Association(GBTA) show that travel is expected to increase by 11.2% in China, 10.8% in India and 7% in Brazil. Correspondingly, HRG has witnessed strong focus on Asia and the Middle East, with growing interest in countries in Africa and Latin America
