CWT Travel Management Priorities, which identified key business travel trends and priorities for travel managers in 2013, showed this to be the buyers’ direction regardless of the size of the company, the industry type, the budget spent on travel or the scope of the travel programme.

The measures travel managers take to achieve these objectives vary according to region. North American travel buyers aim to further consolidate their programmes and standardise processes, while their counterparts in Asia Pacific intend to focus more on improving travel compliance and mandating preferred booking channels.

Latin American travel buyers, however, concentrate on implementing advanced booking rules and strengthening car rental policies. Buyers from Europe, the Middle East and Africa intend to tighten air and rail policies to drive down air and ground costs.

Buyers with global responsibility are the only category to tackle traveller compliance with technology 2.0. Their top three actions to achieve this target include offering mobile services to travellers, implementing a social media tool or apps and providing travellers with a web-based traveller portal. Regional buyers, on the other hand, are looking at more traditional actions such as communication and training on policy.

Christophe Renard, CWT vice president marketing, communications and business intelligence (pictured above left) said the challenging economic climate put continued pressure on buyers to reduce costs and mange travel in a more cost-effective way.

“As air and ground travel represents the majority of spend within a travel programme, it is not surprising that it is the number one priority for most travel buyers, even though it is an area that is already well advanced in terms of optimisation.”

The report also look at the changes travel buyers are likely to see over the year and the challenges they will be faced with in the current economic climate and evolving business travel landscape.

Travel management 2.0 will also be a major theme this year as companies seek to find the right balance between exercising the right level of control over travellers’ booking behaviours, while ensuring that travel is still “managed” for budgetary and safety/security reasons.

Risk management will also play a key role as companies send travellers to increasingly high risk areas and duty of care during business travel becomes an integral part of a company’s legal responsibility to its employees.

Trends for Asia Pacific for 2013

• Rising average daily hotel rates: Average daily hotel rates in Asia Pacific will likely increase by about 3.5% this year. Singapore is expected to lead the way with an 8% amid strong travel demand and lagging supply.
• Growing use of LCCs: According to the survey, 34%of global travel managers and travel managers in Asia Pacific intend to extend their programnes to budget airlines to optimise air transportation savings.
• Social media: Close to two-thirds of global travel managers intend to implement social media strategies for business travellers to improve their experience. Travel managers in Asia Pacific appear to be adopting social media at a quicker pace than other regions.
• Scope for higher adoption of online bookings: Incontrast, when it comes to adopting online booking tools, Asia Pacific still falls behind other regions although the gaps are closing. Levels reached in Asia Pacific, and especially China, are fast approaching those in North America, the most mature market.

Key priorities for 2013

• Developed countries have long placed importance on duty of care towards employees, while in countries like China global companies are now positively influencing local standards to raise awareness of corporate social responsibility issues. This has resulted in travel managers in Asia Pacific ranking “Safety and Security” as a more important priority for 2013 than travel managers in other regions.
• Similarly, travel managers in Asia Pacific intend to place more focus on communicating/providing training on the travel policy and empowering travel counselors to enforce rules. As such they have ranked “Improving Traveller Compliance”higher on their list of priorities than travel managers in most other regions.
• In contrast travel managers in Asia Pacific attached slightly less importance towards “Developing Key Performance Indicators” than travel managers in other regions.

Read the full report here.

                                                                                     Global Priorities