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Base Tendriling Travel Expenses

As business travel expenditures nose up, companies are recognizing that better cost-management methods can make a difference

US. Business travel expenses rocketed to over $143 billion in 1994, based on American Express' most recent survey on business travel management. Private-sector employers spend an estimated $2,484 per employee on travel and entertainment, a 17 percent increase over the past four years.

Corporate T&E costs, now the third-largest controllable expense behind sales and data-processing costs, are under new scrutiny. Corporations are realizing that even a savings of 1 percent or 2 percent can translate into millions of dollars added to their bottom line.

Savings of that order are sure to get management's attention, which is a requirement for this type of project. Involvement begins with understanding and evaluating the components of T&E management in order to control and monitor it more effectively.

Hands-on management includes assigning responsibility for travel management, implementing a quality-measurement system for travel services used, and writing and distributing a formal travel policy. Only 64 percent of U.S. corporations have travel policies.

Even with senior management's support, the road to savings is rocky-only one in three companies has successfully instituted an internal program that will help cut travel expenses, and the myriad aspects of travel are so overwhelming, most companies don't know where to start. "The sector of travel relies on information," says Steven R. Schoen, founder and CEO of The Global Group Inc."Until such time as a passenger really sets foot on the airplane, they've [only] been buying information."

If that's the case, information technology seems a viable place to hammer out those elusive, but highly sought-after, savings. "Technological innovations from the business travel industry are allowing companies to recognize the potential of automation to control and decrease indirect [travel] prices," says Roger H. Ballou, president of the Travel Services Group USA of American Express. "In addition, many businesses are embarking on quality applications that include complex process improvement and reengineering efforts developed to substantially improve T&E management processes and reduce indirect costs."

As companies look to technology to make potential savings a reality, they can get very creative about the methods they employ.

The Great Leveler

Centralized reservation systems were long the exclusive domain of travel agents and other industry professionals. But all that changed in November 1992 when a Department of Transportation ruling allowed the general public access to systems such as Apollo and SABRE. Travel-management software, such as TripPower and TravelNet, immediately sprang up, providing corporations insight into where their T&E dollars are being spent.

The software tracks spending trends by interfacing with the corporation's database and providing access to centralized reservation systems that provide immediate reservation information to airlines, hotels and car rental agencies. These programs also allow users to generate computerized travel reports on cost savings with details on where discounts were obtained, hotel and car usage and patterns of travel between cities. Actual data gives corporations added leverage when negotiating discounts with travel suppliers.

"When you have the information, you don't have to return to square one every time you decide to modify bureaus," says Mary Savovie Stephens, travel manager for biotech giant Chiron Corp..

Sybase Inc., a client/server software leader with an annual T&E budget of more than $15 million, agrees. "Software gives us unprecedented visibility into how workers are paying their journey dollars and better manage to negotiate with travel service providers," says Robert Lerner, director of credit and corporate travel services for Sybase Inc."We have greater access to data, quicker, at a real-time environment, which is expected to attract us big economies in T&E. We have control over our travel information and no longer need to rely exclusively on the airlines and agencies."

The cost for this privilege depends on the volume of business. One-time purchases of travel-management software can run from under $100 to more than $125,000. Some software providers will accommodate smaller users by selling software piecemeal for $5 to $12 per booked trip, still a significant savings from the $50 industry norm per transaction.

No More Tickets

Paperless travel is catching on faster than the paperless office ever did as both service providers and consumers work together to reduce ticket prices for business travelers. Perhaps the most cutting-edge of the advances is "ticketless" travel, which almost all major airlines are testing.

In the meantime, travel providers and agencies are experimenting with new technologies to enable travelers to book travel services via the Internet, e-mail and unattended ticketing kiosks. Best Western International, Hyatt Hotels and several other major hotel chains market on the Internet. These services reduce the need for paper and offer better service and such peripheral benefits as increased efficiency, improved tracking of travel expenses and trends, and cost reduction.

Dennis Egolf, CFO of the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Louisville, Ky., realized that the medical center's decentralized location, a quarter-mile from the hospital, made efficiency difficult. "We were losing production time and things got dropped," he says. "Every memo had to become hand-carried for acceptance, and we took seven distinct copies of each travel order." As a result, Egolf tried an off-the-shelf, paper-reduction program bundle made for the federal government.

The software makes it possible for the hospital to handle travel on-line, from tracking per-diem adjustments and calculating expenses to creating cash advance types and authorizing settlement vouchers. The program also lets the hospital maintain a running account of its travel expenditures and its remaining traveling budget. Find out more information click topworldtravels.com

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What Travel Agents Need to Know About Corporate Travel Today

This is rightly named as the era of traveler-centricity and with the development of the new era of personalized journey; it's resulting in development and research of a host of new so-called smart services. The command-and-control viewpoints of travel have changed a good deal from the past and the focus has shifted more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip. It has become essential to keep the travelers have the best return on investment on each trip. New generations of young workers and supervisors, who have been growing and living in a digital age, are shifting the rankings as travelers. It is now essential to comprehend the demand for increased flexibility recognizing that the workers who travel on corporate excursions also look at a percentage of the trip to be a leisure outlet. With increasing earnings and increase in companies sending their employees overseas to community and connect with their overseas prospects/customers/suppliers, corporate journey is a highly rewarding tourism section. Before we discuss how tourism companies can better appeal to business travelers, so let us look at why they prefer to use specialized Company agencies over conventional brokers

Why do businesses utilize Corporate Travel Agencies?

This could be the most elementary question to get a travel service regarding why they will need to utilize agencies specializing in corporate travel when there are plenty of standard travel agents on the marketplace. Here is the value of business travel agencies that have online systems which allow business travelers access to their complete itinerary.

The following information is at the hands of their CTAs:-

Complete business itinerary details up-to-date monitoring Information of flights (such as delays or rescheduling) crystalline Particulars about extra costs like luggage fees or Rollover charges travel alarms, if any, in the destined area up-to-date and complete Particulars about the visa exemptions and identification Necessary currency condition and conversion prices What do corporate clients anticipate from Corporate Travel Agencies?

Negotiated Fares

The Corporate Agencies tend to have tie-ups with hotels, car rentals, flights etc.. giving them access to lower fares which could be used only by the frequent business travelers. Discounted prices aren't the only benefit though as they also offer flight upgrades, room upgrades, and VIP check lines as required.

In-depth Information Regarding the travel sector

Business travel agents have access to many travel resources and most of all, quickly, than every other leisure travel agent. Further information can help to create the company trips comfortable and convenient.

Changes in Itinerary

When an airline ticket needs to get rescheduled or cancelled, odds are the airline or the internet service provider will bill superb fees. When booking using a corporate travel agent, the majority of the times schedule changes may be performed at zero or minimal added charges.

Viable emergency connections

It's important for the company travelers to get to the correct person at the need of trouble. Business travel agents have the expertise and professionalism to alleviate stress for both the traveller and the corporation.

What you will need to consider as corporate travel raises?

Business Travel Barometer noted that corporate travel is witnessing an accelerated growth. But when poorly handled, it may be no more an advantage to businesses and may, actually turned into a burden. There are a few aspects that the companies and CTAs must think about to get the most out of the time traveling.

Adopting a travel coverage

The corporate must specify a journey policy which is applicable to respected by travelers in all levels. This policy should be utilized to establish the standards which will help track the improvement of business journey. It is going to gradually help to lower the expenses of the whole package.

Do not restrict the traveller's freedom

The management accounts for budgeting the traveling policy that helps to improve cost management nevertheless, it is also vital to provide a level of independence to the traveler. The policy should be flexible enough to allow the worker to accommodate the trip as per the circumstance.

Traveler's security ought to be a major concern

Business travelers have to have security set up. The company should adhere with its definition of standards to ensure the worker's integrity. The CTAs should have dependable partners (travel insurance, airlines, hotel chains etc.).

Mobility and automation

To maximize time and facilitate the procedures, the administration of direction platforms ought to have automatic processes. This implies that they should adopt mobile solutions where lookup choices, travel alerts, ticket bookings etc. can be retrieved immediately, easily and on the go.

Corporate Travel Trends in 2016

Business travel styles tend to change frequently. 2016 has not been any different and also the travel management companies (TMCs) and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) are very focused to supply steady if not strong axis around. A growing MICE sector, investments in cellular and big data and enhanced focus on duty of care are some of the areas of focus.

Rising prices

The consolidated buzzword among international suppliers, airfares, hotel rates etc. is the rising prices. It is at times the move of the providers to generate discounts which encourage travel if there's a strong decline in demand. A positive 2016 world market continues to be attracting an increase in air fares of a couple of percentage points, hotels are predicted to see 4%-6% increase in average worldwide rates and the competition will remain average from the car rental providers.

Duty of caution

Risk management is one of the significant points of emphasis such as businesses. Corporate customers are permitting new policies and advanced technologies to monitor employees' location in case of an emergency, especially when they are travelling to overseas destinations. For instance, Concur Risk Messaging helps you to identify the travelers moving around on earth and alarms them with alternate travel agreement as and if required.

Focusing on MICE

Meetings sector is a significant growing sector and the corporate travel tendency is developing on it. The corporate travel agencies need to better start aligning the various assembly procurement methodologies with its passing travel angling. Among the ways might be to broaden the wide range of meeting services by integrating incentive trips within it.

Investing in tech

A sharper focus on increasing value and becoming more traveler-centric could be achieved by bringing in cellular friendly technologies. Mobile and large data are undoubtedly the two most significant technological investments which any corporate travel bureau must focus to earn their system more attractive.

Business travel analysis after Brexit

After Brexit, ACTE and CAPA shared their speculations. According to these, the best short-term consequences on the travel sector will come from the weakening of the pound against other world currencies. Greeley Koch, executive director at the Association of Corporate Travel Executives said that the business travel industry will fad on currency changes; with several companies taking advantage of the poorer pound and travel more, though others might conduct business journey until world economies find their own level.

Impact of terrorism to corporate travelers

Travel policy makers and administrators need to be directed by rising terrorism scare. For executives and staff undertaking journey on behalf of companies, both the travel agents and corporate travel agencies (CTAs) should demonstrate the reassurance for their safety throughout the travel policies. It is probably that the surveys conducted over corporate travelers reflect the overall concern of the global business travelers about the spate of terrorism. However, there is no denying the reality that cyber threat is altering the patterns of business traveling. The important effects of this would be to keep in mind that the businesses providing travel services for business travelers need to enhance their focus on safety and the related risks in delivering the services to corporate customers. As demonstrated by a recent finding, travel managers have greater estimation of their policy's effectiveness in addressing risk in comparison with skeptical business travelers.

Concluding

Although the corporate travel industry has continued to progress, there are a plethora of challenges faced by the industry. A rapidly changing consumer market, the development of new business units, the impact of technology, man-made and natural disasters are a few of the fulcrum factors that will need to be considered prior to planning corporate excursions.

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